Fix The First Thing
by A Damned Scientist
Summary: Aeryn and baby D'Argo enjoy an unplanned vacation on Earth.
1. Day One

**Fix the First Thing (PG)**

Written for Schmacky, who asked for a baby-Deke-on-earth fic.

A change of pace from my recent fics, despite what the first 1000 words might make you think.

Setting and Spoilers: Future Fic, during Comic Canon. Aeryn is keeping tight-lipped as to whether this is AU or filler, she wont even tell me which it is. It's not UR, though. Set some time during the War For The Uncharted Territories, if only in order to have Little D'Argo as a babe-in-arms.

Warnings and rating: PG. Probably just a G, but I've given it a PG because there's a touch of Mild Peril, some Farscapian and Earthly bad language and a few mild sexual references. Oh, and a dangerously high level of A/J shippiness: A/J ship 'diabetics' should proceed at their own risk. I had originally planned a fairly gruesome ending because [spoiler]we all know what happens, sooner or later, to prowler pilots who go through wormholes, don't we? [/spoiler] but once I got writing I found I didn't have the stomach for it. Maybe I should write an epilogue? :devil:

You need to suspend your disbelief a few times in this story. You also need to accept that, in this AU, the Disney Cinderella Castle in Florida has a 'sleeping dragon' under it, like the one in Paris. Apparently this is not so in our reality. This is all wrong: It ought to have one.

Last waffling: Because Aeryn is looking back on her visit to Earth in TF, I've dropped in a number of references to other peoples' fanfics set during that ep. Have fun spotting them. I adore every fanfic I have referenced but if you think I've referenced one of yours and you're unhappy, feel free to moan at me (preferably by PM) and I'll do my best to make you happier.

Disclaimer: Not mine, wish it was. Actually, I wish it was real more than I wish it was mine.

Thanks: pdsldl for the beta, and especially for encouraging me to increase the Deke-content.

**Fix the First Thing (PG)**

**Day One:**

Aeryn barely had time to register the sudden appearance of the Kkore warships before they opened fire on her prowler. Her training and experience as a combat pilot cut in automatically as she immediately spiralled the prowler away from her enemy's first shots. The Kkore ships followed, latching onto her as best they could as she employed one random manoeuvre after another, steadily tacking her way towards the relative sanctuary of the nearby planet. Behind her, barely audible above the sounds of the prowlers systems, she could hear the sound of Deke stirring, her precious baby having been awakened by the sudden, stomach-churning acceleration forces acting upon both of them as a result of her manoeuvres.

Aeryn pushed the nose of the prowler violently down and engaged maximum thrust, diving into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, picking up speed both through gravity and from the fighter's powerful engines. If only she could loose the Kkore in the atmosphere, then she stood a chance to make it to safety. Or if only there had been only one of them, she might have taken the Kkore on in a fight, tried to destroy them instead of having to try to escape from them. She cursed in frustration as another shot from their pursuers grazed dangerously close to her prowler, causing extra turbulence she could well do without. More shots crackled around her even as the nose of her ship began to light up berry-red, as John might say, from the friction of atmospheric entry.

At that moment, Aeryn's already limited luck ran out. One of the Kkores' shots grazed the right hand side of the prowler, causing damage to several systems. Aeryn fought for control of her damaged ship, even as she struggled to assess the dozen damage reports now registering on the display of her flight computer. She had barely begun to do so, however, before her attention was seized by the new peril which had appeared immediately in front of her prowler. Somehow, she presumed, the last shot had provided the final missing piece of the puzzle that fate had been working on to frell her over. Or maybe it was D'Argo and his mysterious ability to warp time and space? What had caused the monstrous thing to appear didn't really matter. She had seen the blue, swirling maw of a proto-wormhole enough times to know exactly what she was heading towards. Wormhole or Kkore? It was not much of a choice, if it was any choice at all: She wasn't at all sure if she had sufficient manoeuvrability or room left to avoid the wormhole even if she wanted to. But then, who would be crazy enough to fly a prowler into a wormhole? She knew well enough what fate had awaited every pilot who had dared such a thing before. All she could hope was that the experimental modifications to the prowler which John had been working on would be enough to save her and Deke from the fate which had befallen those pilots.

Aeryn had never understood why John had insisted on performing the modifications, as there had seemed to be no possibility that they would ever be desperate enough to try them out. She'd been a little angry about it at the time that he had done the work, as it largely seemed to comprise of him removing some of the shielding and protection systems from around the cockpit. She recalled irritatedly reminding him that they were systems and components which were, after all, there to protect her from quite foreseeable threats. But now, as the wormhole swallowed her, she hoped that John had been right and she was grateful that he had at least tried. With the modifications, perhaps she and Deke had some hope of surviving transit through a wormhole? Without them, she was certain that they were both already as good as dead.

With a final wrench, the prowler pulled free of the wormhole, which puckered shut abruptly behind them like a sinkhole sealing itself. The prowler spun end over end for three rotations before Aeryn was able to stabilize it and ensure that they were in a viable orbit around the planet over which they had emerged and that no pursuing ships had followed them through. Ignoring the blinking warnings on her controls for a few microts, she released her harness and twisted in her seat to check that Deke was safe and well. Satisfied that he was unharmed, she turned her attention back to the state of her ship. At least she wasn't being deafened by alarms like she would have been in John's bucket of dren: superior Peacekeeper technology just didn't malfunction often enough to justify audible alarms, whilst if a Prowler was damaged in a combat situation, what did it matter? You fought on with what you had for as long as you were able. Audible alarms would just be a distraction with no obvious benefit.

The prowler's treblin side main engine was venting fuel – the fuel loss was easily fixed by accessing a few control protocols to cross-pump via an auxiliary system – but the engine was also delivering only about 40% of the power that it should, and even that was steadily dropping. The power loss could not be so easily fixed, and certainly not without landing. Aeryn was also well-aware that here was always the risk of a sudden fire or explosion with that sort of damage. Even more worrisome was life support: their primary air supply had been holed. Although the prowler's systems had automatically switched to the emergency back up air supply, that only gave them about an hour and a half of breathable atmosphere. Aeryn frowned and looked to the stars for inspiration. What would John do? It was then that she noticed something familiar about the planet she was circling.

It was Earth!

It had been a long fourteen monens since she had last been on this utterly insignificant, little blue-green planet, whose occupants thought that they were so clever, despite their ridiculous digital watches and reality TV shows. Her life and relationship with John had been very different on that last visit. She had seen the broadcasts from R Wilson Munroe, discovering and watching them one day when John had been off the ship on a supply run. It had been an educational experience for Aeryn. Although she was not surprised to learn that many humans seemed suspicious of her and her relationship with John, other humans seemed quite comfortable both with her and with the possibility that she and John might be mates. She had never told him she had looked at the recording, though. If John wanted to discuss its contents with her, including the fear that some humans seemed to have that she might be carrying John's child, then he would surely have mentioned it and shown her the tape.

But now she and her half-human offspring were in orbit around Earth and Aeryn had limited breathing space to think about the consequences or risks of returning to John's planet. She was fairly certain that she wouldn't be able to make a wormhole and return home in the time she had. Besides, even if she did, would the Kkore still be there, ready to attack? She had to take a chance with the humans. The only important question in her mind at that moment was whether or not she had come through in the right time period? She knew from harsh experience that she couldn't risk the repercussions if she had emerged in her and John's past. If she had arrived at the right time then it should be early 2005 by the human calendar, she reasoned. A quick scan through some radio frequencies confirmed that, if she had drifted in the timeline, then she wasn't too far off from where she should be. She checked the damage to the prowler once again. The little she had to go on about the timeline would have to do – the risk of staying in orbit outweighed the apparently small risk that she was not in the precisely correct point in time or the risk that she and Deke would not be well-received by the humans.

Aeryn brought the prowler in steeply towards the Florida coast, dialling up the radio frequency she had used to communicate with the human space control centre on her last visit. After all, although she had her hands full flying the damaged prowler, she knew how paranoid humans could be and it wouldn't do to be mistaken for some sort of hostile, all for the sake of a call.

"Hello Canaveral, can you hear me?" she opened. Silence. "Fine. I'll speak, you listen. This is Officer Aeryn Sun from Moya. My prowler has sustained damage and I need to make an emergency landing." More silence. Why weren't they replying? It didn't matter, she knew exactly where she was heading anyway. "I'll be landing on the helipad next to hangar AQ, at Cape Canaveral….In about… two hundred micr….. two minutes….." No reply. Frelling humans, she didn't have time for this, she thought as the Florida coastline came back into sight through her canopy and she struggled to hold the damaged Prowler steady through heavy clear-air turbulence.

Aeryn's hands flew expertly across the controls, controlling the effects of the yaw, caused by the damaged engine and exacerbated by the turbulence and the need to scrub off speed. She stabilized the craft just long enough to allow her the precious time needed to activate the auto-trajectory guidance system and select the coordinates for the hangar AQ helipad from its memory. By the time her hand returned to the throttles, just a few microts later, her display was already showing a near 10-degree yaw once again. Masterfully, she pulled the nose back round once again and, at the same time, she eased her velocity below the speed of sound. The Cape was coming up fast now, too fast if she didn't scrub off more of her speed. She could already make out some of the larger structures in the hazy distance.

She had only a few more seconds of flight remaining before she overshot, and was already swooping in low across the spaceport. Aeryn pulled the prowler's speed down to just above where, in Earth atmosphere, it would probably stall. She did not want to risk pulling her prowler, with its damaged engines and limited natural atmospheric lift, out of a natural glide until the last possible microt. If the ship did stall and the thrusters were not working properly, it could be a very rough landing indeed. Only in the last couple of microts did she dare risk using her possibly damaged secondary thrusters, scrubbing off the last of her speed right in front of the hangar and setting the prowler down gently in a textbook, short, near-vertical landing.

She breathed a near-silent prayer of thanks to Yemahl before closing down the engines.

Sighing with relief, Aeryn took off her oculars and set them in front of her then began unfastening her harness for the second time that flight. She had managed to bring the prowler down without major incident, landing in exactly the same spot that the humans had asked her to use on her previous visit. But why they hadn't replied to her calls was a mystery to her – maybe her radio was out, damaged in the dogfight? Maybe they had changed their frequencies? No matter, everything looked pretty much as she remembered it and she would soon find out the reason for their lack of response. As she turned to unfasten little D'Argo, she noticed through the opaque canopy that a number of Earth vehicles were drawing up around her.

Time to look at the music, as John might say, Aeryn thought as she popped the canopy latch. It was a warm day, uncomfortable, but probably not dangerous to her or her son. She pushed herself up, out of her seat, to see five or six security guards nearby, loitering nervously around their vehicles, apparently uneasy about approaching her. Well, she couldn't blame them for being nervous – she hadn't been on Earth for about a cycle, and her arrival had been somewhat precipitous. She was relieved to see that they seemed to relax slightly at the sight of her. Perhaps this was one of those times when her predilection for head-to-toe black leather outfits might actually help people to recognize her? No, that couldn't be so: She was wearing one of her olive-green fabric shirts today, and was currently without a jacket.

"I have a child with me. Can someone give me a hand getting down?" she called across to the nearest knot of guards in her best, crisp English. A couple of the guards seemed to relax a notch further at the sound of her voice, although they still all looked a little nervous and on edge.

"Err, um, yeah, sure…" one of the older security guards called back, holstering the pistol he was holding and taking a step towards her. She beamed what John would call one of her full-wattage smiles back at him in thanks, noting with relief that the man briefly smiled back in response, albeit still somewhat nervously. She pulled her long black leather duster out from behind the seat and tossed it to the guard: It was too hot to consider wearing it today, after all, but she might want it later. She followed that act by lifting and passing down her small flight bag, mostly filled with accoutrements for D'Argo these days. Lastly came the thing she most feared showing the humans: D'Argo. Still, things had gone reasonably well so far, and it wasn't as though she could leave him in the prowler. The knot of guards had grown closer around her by this time, and one of the older ones smiled and held his arms up to her when he saw D'Argo as she lifted him out of his sling.

"Here, ma'am, I'll take him for you, while you get down," the man said in what she now recognized as a Southern drawl, a bit like the one that John sometimes exhibited. She hazarded a crooked smile back before nervously handing over D'Argo. As she clambered out of the cockpit she wondered whether perhaps things were going to work out fine, for a change?

'~'

The small knot of people watching Aeryn and D'Argo through the one-way glass had quickly made their way from their various offices and labs around the huge base.

"Looks like we've managed to keep a lid on it so far, media-wise, thank God," a petite, pretty woman with a loose cascade of curly, auburn hair commented as another person joined their small group.

"I think it helped that it all happened so quickly," replied a well-toned, blue-eyed man, nodding in welcome to the newcomer, who was a much older man with the lithe build of someone who must have been athletic in his youth. "I mean, she just appeared out of nowhere in high orbit, and five minutes later was on the ground. Incredible."

"Plus we've managed to keep the military away. Again, maybe just for now. For her sake, and the kid's, it's damn lucky she chose to come in here rather than some military base," the woman continued. She wondered how much of the small craft's precipitous descent and landing had been observed by the air force or navy or whoever, and how long it might take for them to start asking the space agency what the hell was going on.

"True enough," said the newcomer, acknowledging that so far there had been few repercussions of the stranger's emergency landing. "And she speaks English?"

"Perfectly. With an English or maybe Australian accent, apparently. Well, that's what the guys who brought her in said. Looks completely human, too," the woman continued. "As far as they're concerned, that's what she is."

"But we're thinking she's not a Brit or an Aussie?" the younger man asked, semi-rhetorically.

"Well, even if they have developed a sleek, stealthy new space-fighter without us knowing, I'm prit-tee sure that a black leather outfit and a baby isn't standard equipment in the Royal Air Force," the woman bantered back.

"So is she an alien, or a human? And, if she's human, where the hell did she come from?" asked the older man.

"Or when?" added the younger, causing the other two to stare at him for a moment. He had a habit of making such peculiar and disconcerting remarks, but that didn't make them any easier to deal with when he made them. "Just saying…" he shrugged, almost apologizing.

"Well, let's find out…" said the older man, leading the way towards the door.

'~'

"Shhh," Aeryn soothed D'Argo, nursing and rocking him in her arms. She hadn't really known what to expect from the humans, hadn't really had time to think it through beforehand. In quick succession, there had been the Kkore attack, then the wormhole, then the urgent need to land the damaged prowler before or unless it suffered a critical systems failure, and then lastly the stress of the breakneck landing itself.

All things considered, things hadn't worked out too unexpectedly or disastrously. So far. The nervous and unprepared security guards had asked her to surrender her obvious weapons, her pulse pistol and commando knife, as they had wanted to on her last visit. This time, without John to argue for her, she had complied, handing over the two weapons shortly after retrieving D'Argo from the sling behind her seat and before locking the prowler's canopy. She still had a small, concealed pistol and another knife in her boot. She had then allowed the guards to escort her to a nearby building, and thence to this modest, but reasonably comfortable conference room. That had been about ten earth minutes ago and, since then, she had had been left entirely alone apart from the two wide eyed, nervous looking and frankly very uncommunicative security guards at the door.

Once it was clear that the guards were not going to answer her questions, she decided to ignore them and concentrate on Deke. She guessed that the suddenness of her arrival meant that the humans needed time to get their performance together, as John might say. She searched in her small flight bag, pulling out Deke's flask and began busying herself with letting him have a drink. She knew he didn't really need one, but it helped calm her nerves and make the time go quicker.

The door opened and three humans began to file in. The eldest, who unknown to Aeryn had been the last to arrive, was in the lead. Aeryn looked up to check them out, her face lighting up in a radiant smile as she saw the old man.

"Jack!" she exclaimed in happy recognition at seeing John's father. Jack almost stopped dead in shock at hearing his name, but hid it remarkably well. A pretty, leather-clad, possibly alien woman, who was totally unknown to him and was nursing a baby, had just called him by name as though they were long-lost friends. In his extensive experience Monday mornings rarely got any weirder than that.

"I'm sorry miss, I don't believe…" Jack began. But the woman's attention had shifted to the people entering the room behind him.

"John!" Aeryn gasped. Well that solved the question as to whether or not this was one of John's alternate realities, and also any question as to what might be the first thing she would notice which was wrong if it were. But that wasn't all. "Laura…..!" Aeryn exclaimed in horrified recognition, much to Laura Knox' evident surprise. Having a possibly alien stranger call her by name had not featured in Dr Knox' Outlook calendar for that week, either. But Laura's initial surprise was as nothing to that caused by Aeryn's next comment "But you're d….. Oh Frell…..!" Aeryn finished, at last turning as white and her face betraying as much shock as that now evident on the faces of all three humans.

The humans and the sebacean stared at each other across the room in silence for a few seconds, no one moving. It was Jack who finally broke the spell.

"Oh…Kay…. miss…. Sun, is that right?" Aeryn nodded slowly, trying to compute what her best strategy would be. It was clear that she had managed to get herself into some sort of unrealised reality and she remembered how afraid John had been of such things. 'Fix the first thing that seems wrong and get the frell out,' she remembered he had said of them. There was no time to dwell on how to do that now, though. Jack was speaking again, the words directed at her.

"Well, you look pretty freaked out, young lady. Suppose you tell us your story, starting at the beginning?" he suggested, his tone not unkindly but nevertheless commanding.

Aeryn took a deep breath. She knew now that she was well and truly frelled. Fate had bitten her hard in her small print, as she imagined that John might say. But, on the positive side, no one had threatened her or Deke and, of all the people in this planet she might trust, the two at the top of her list were sitting across the table from her. And the third person present wasn't exactly far down that imaginary list either. She pulled D'Argo close to her and licked her suddenly-dry lips.

"Can I get something to drink? Water would be fine," Aeryn asked, partly playing for time so that she could marshal her thoughts and decide how she was going to play this.

"I think we can arrange that," John said with one of his sparkly-eyed, lopsided grins. That was something she hadn't seen in a little while. Somehow, it had the effect of helping her relax slightly.

"Thank you. And can you ask the guards to leave, please?" she added.

"Why?" Jack asked flatly, catching Aeryn out a little. She realised that she might have been relaxing a little too much. For his part, Jack wasn't going to risk anyone's safety.

"Because you might want to control who hears what I have to say, Aeryn answered. Jack considered it for a moment and nodded, motioning for the guards to leave. The door shut behind them and Aeryn took another deep breath.

"My name is Aeryn Sun, that much you already seem to know. I am from a distant part of the universe. And you have no frelling idea how much I should not be here," Indeed, she almost laughed at the very idea of how much she should not be in this particular reality. The humans, on the other hand, seemed to be having a little more trouble covering up their mirth at the very idea that she might be 'from a distant part of the universe.' Frelling humans and their frelling all-encompassing ignorance.

"You want to tell us?" John asked with a friendly smile.

"No, not everything…" Aeryn replied, trying not to look at Laura. There were things she was fairly sure it wouldn't be healthy to share. Her averted eyes didn't go un-noticed by the three humans.

"But you could?" Laura asked. Aeryn shrugged. "So, all the aliens up there speak English do they, like on the TV?" Laura challenged, trying a different tack.

"Of course not. Would you like me to speak my own language?" Aeryn snapped back in sebacean. The succession of clicks and swallowed consonants made them all sit up and take her more seriously. "You taught me English, John. You and Sesame Street," she finished in English with a wistful smile.

"Must've been last year, when you and Doug went to Vegas," Laura commented dryly. John was not amused: He didn't care to remember the lost weekend he and DK had experienced shortly after his final break up with Caroline. Actually, wasn't able to remember most of it was a little more accurate.

"OK, suppose we buy your story on the language for a moment…" John replied, changing the subject. "There's a few other things which don't make sense…"

"Such as how come you know our names?" Laura enquired bluntly, feeling a personal need to probe a little.

"And how come you look so human?" John added.

"I look human because…. Well, because my ancestors were human, we think. And I know your names because... because I've met you all before," Aeryn replied carefully and with some trepidation, deciding that there was no point in risking eroding any trust she might manage to build up by fabricating lies around key questions which she couldn't avoid answering. Lies were always dangerous, as you had to remember what you had said or risk exposure as a liar.

John simply laughed out loud at her answer, irritating her immensely.

"The hair. The leather. The whole hot-sci-fi-chick-with-gun vibe you've got going on. I think I'd have remembered all that…! How 'bout you, dad?" He protested through his laughter. Aeryn frowned and adjusted her hold on D'Argo.

"Will you just listen, John!" she hissed angrily. "Frell, you always did talk too much!"

"She's got you there, son," Jack put in with a smirk.

Aeryn fixed John with her best PK stare. She was gratified to see that he immediately calmed down and grew a little more serious. But she was still angry with him and that clouded her judgement. "I know that you understand something about alternate realities, John. Well, I am from a different reality. In my reality, I've met you, all three of you." Her claim about an alternate reality was so shocking, such a change from what the humans had expected, that they remained silent. Aeryn ploughed on. "In my reality, about a year ago, you found a wormhole and got us back to Earth…"

"What do you mean, I found?" John asked, his voice returning, but now visibly and audibly taken aback.

"Nothing, I shouldn't have…." Aeryn rapidly tried to backtrack. Frell. They had made her angry and she had slipped up, perhaps said too much.

"But you did. Now, what did you mean?" Jack insisted.

"It can wait…." Aeryn tried to buy time to think.

"I don't think it can," John insisted, backing up his father. Aeryn looked plaintively from one human to the next, seeking, begging with her eyes for the smallest shred of support. All three humans stared back at her with expectant defiance.

"Frell!" She snapped, angry more at herself than at them. Upset for allowing herself to get angry and give away more than she intended. "Look, I'll tell you, but only you, John. Then you can decide how much to share with the others." Damage limitation: It seemed the best way to go.

Jack, John and Laura exchanged questioning looks. Should they agree to this, to letting this strange, allegedly-alien woman speak to John alone? John nodded. Laura shrugged. Jack frowned.

"You sure you're OK with this, son?" Jack asked.

"Sure, I mean you guys'll be just outside. It's not like she's going to knock me over and sit on me or anything, is it?" John remarked, his attempt at lightening the mood turning to a frown as Aeryn laughed aloud at what he had said.

"What's so funny?" John demanded.

"I'll tell you in a microt," Aeryn replied, abruptly regaining her self-control.

'~'

"OK, missy, so we've got each others' undivided attention," John drawled. D'Argo gurgled something, which John thought sounded vaguely like "Daddy?"

"No, not daddy," Aeryn whispered to the infant, for reasons that escaped John.

"Excepting the little 'un, of course," John grinned. Aeryn smiled back weakly, unable to conceal how on edge she was. "Ain't nobody else here but us chickens, just like you wanted. So, spill…"

"In this other reality. The one that I come from. You and I…." Aeryn began, struggling to know how to say what she wanted to say. John leant back in his chair and uncharacteristically remained quiet, allowing her the time and space to say what she wanted to say in the way that she wanted. She took a deep breath readying herself to race through what she wanted to say, before she lots her nerve. "John, in my reality, I am married to John Crichton. D'Argo is our son."

John raised an eyebrow, then opened his jaw to say something. Then he changed his mind and shut his mouth. He stood, walked over to the water cooler that stood by the door. He poured himself a drink and swallowed it in one go. "Could do with something stronger," he muttered and poured himself another anyway.

"Well, are you going to say anything?" Aeryn asked sharply, her patience wearing so thin it might be beyond patching. "It's not like you to have nothing to say."

John flashed her a half-hearted smile and, bearing both his own cup and a fresh cup of water for Aeryn, he returned to sit opposite her, offering her the water as he sat.

"So, suppose what you say is true. How'd we meet then? You and me. The other me. In your reality?" He asked, somewhat more casually than his emotions should have allowed, flicking his finger back and forth between them as he spoke. Might as well get it over with, the whole story, he thought. After all, after that bombshell, everything else ought to be fairly tame.

"About five years ago, the Farscape opened a wormhole in space, and you were pulled through, into my world."

"Where I bumped into you?" he snapped back with evident scepticism.

"Actually, I was the fourth person you met on the other side of the wormhole."

"So, what, then I suppose I swept you off my feet with my good looks, charm, and winning personality?" He grinned boyishly. If all this was her idea of a joke, he'd show her that he was quite capable of playing along and giving as good as he got.

"Hardly," she snorted. "I beat you up and sat on you. That is why I laughed earlier, just before the others left."

"No!" John's masculine pride could not concede that the willowy beauty before him would be capable of bettering him in a fight.

"John, I am…. I was… a special-forces commando. I was assigned to retake the ship, which took you aboard immediately after you went through the wormhole. You were lucky that beating you up was all that I did."

At that moment, D'Argo writhed and demanded Aeryn's attention. John watched carefully as she lovingly comforted the baby, lulling him back to peaceful rest with a stroke, a kiss, and a few soft words. Words, which, John noted, seemed to be in the strange clicking language she had used before and not in English, or in any other language with which John was familiar.

"There's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there Miss Sun?" he commented, growing more serious and taking another sip of water before absent-mindedly rubbing his lip with his thumb.

'~'

John and Jack stood behind the one-way mirror, watching whilst Aeryn fed, watered and changed the baby, whose name was apparently either Deke or D'Argo. She seemed to use the two interchangeably. She had not indicated why. Whilst John and Aeryn had had their one-to-one conversation, Jack had sent out for diapers, baby food and other supplementary accoutrements, as Aeryn didn't seem to have had very much with her to tend for her child. Apparently, she had not been expecting a long trip. Now, twenty minutes later, they had taken a break and the humans had given her a few minutes peace whilst they discussed the situation.

"So, let me get this straight, son: She's an alien, sort of, or so she says. Let's just say not from Earth. But not just that, she's from another dimension. Another reality? And in her reality, the Farscape project went wrong, and you ended up stuck on the other side of the universe, met her, fell in love, had a baby?" Jack asked, frowning with the disbelief of an old pilot with little imagination or understanding of the niceties of theoretical physics. "And this other you came back to Earth with her last year and that's when she met me and Laura?"

"That's about the size of it, dad," John replied, shaking his head in disbelief. He stared at her through the glass, trying to get his head around all that she had just told him. It was quite a tall story, but she had said it with such sincerity, such conviction, and most tellingly, such consistency that he could not fault her. Part of him wanted so hard to believe her, believe it was true. He longed to believe that somewhere, somehow, John Crichton could have been so lucky: She had not gone into detail regarding all of the bad things that had happened to the other him.

When John had first walked into the interview room and she had called his name their eyes met. It had almost knocked the breath out of him. He didn't really believe in love at first sight or that a couple could be just meant to be, not any more, not after Alex and then Caroline. They had burnt away a lot of his romantic notions.

But there had been something there between them, a connection he had never felt before. Or perhaps it was just his hormones, he half-joked to himself? It had been a long time since he and Caroline had ended it. A long, lonely time indeed: He hadn't had another serious relationship since.

"And you believe her?" The old man's voice brought him back. His tone and words betrayed an even more overt scepticism this time. "Sounds like a pretty unlikely story to me…"

"Yeah, I know. But she knows things about me, dad, she knows things even Alex or Caroline didn't know. And you've seen the kid – tell me, who does he remind you of?"

"Lots of kids have blue eyes John," Jack sighed. "Sometimes people see what they want to see when looking at a baby, they see family resemblances in kids that aren't at all related."

"I know, I know," John held up his hands, conceding the point. "But next time you're with her, look carefully at her left hand. She's wearing a ring… but not just any ring. It's the spitting image of mum's ring."

"Hell, son," Jack considered this for a few seconds. "Suppose it is? This could still all just be some sort of trick. If she's a spy, it could all be part of her cover. If she's an alien, who knows what they could do, read minds, make us see what they want to see…. We need to find out what she wants from us, assess what the risks are."

"Yeah, I know that too. But that's the thing, dad: Yes she wants to make a deal, but it's nothing fancy. She seems pretty clued up that we won't be able to keep her, the kid, and most of all her ship a secret for long and she just wants to get back."

"Back?"

"Back to her home, to the other me… her husband." He shrugged. "If she's telling the truth, then there's another me out there, wondering what's happened, worrying where his wife and kid has gotten too. I dunno about you dad, but if there's any chance that's true, I'm not sure I can live with not helping them… so long as we don't give her too much, y'know, anything secret."

Jack pursed his lips. The three of them, he, John and Laura, all held senior positions in the organization. Between them, they could probably pull it off for a few days, if they wanted to. But it was a big risk. "Well, I guess it's your call, son, I'll help you as best I can if that's what you want to do… So what's the bottom line here?"

"OK, here's the deal, we help her fix the ship, give her what help we can to guess when she might be able to catch another wormhole, and she'll tell us what she can about wormholes, what she knows of alien technology, the low down on who and what's out there."

"But she'd be expecting us to keep all this under our hats while she's here: That's a big ask…."

"Just a few days, dad, that's all she asks. Think of what we might learn in return."

"I'll see what I can do, son. I've already put out the standard holding story, to keep people off our backs. Anyone as asks is being told that the whole business today was just someone else's hush-hush project having a little technical difficulty. Thank God she looks so human, speaks English and her ship might pass for one of ours to a casual observer."

John nodded and smiled in appreciation. "One other thing, dad…"

"Hmm?"

"She wants to spend any free time she has with us…. You, me… and even Liv, apparently… she says in her reality you never got the chance to meet your grandson, he's never come to Earth."

Jack's mouth opened but no sound came out. In some incomprehensible way he had a grandson, and an alien daughter in law and perhaps just a few days to get to know them. For the first time, he truly began to understand that implications of Aeryn's story.

'~'

Jack stood in the shade of the hangar by the door as he watched John, Aeryn Sun and two handpicked mechanics moving the alien fighter craft inside the hangar. It was his first chance to take a really long look at the vessel. Jack was an experienced military pilot, and he had no doubt that the woman's ship was a fighter. The sharp, aggressive lines reminded him of a little of a Tomcat, the last combat plane he had flown, although it clearly wasn't engineered with the extensive lift and control surfaces that he would be used to: It didn't look as though it was designed to operate primarily in atmosphere. Under any other circumstances, all of his attention would have been wholly on the alien ship. But these were not usual circumstances. He smiled down at the child in his arms: Enquiring, bright blue eyes stared back at him from beneath a thatch of jet-black hair. A tiny hand reached out and pulled at his lapel with surprising strength.

He and John seemed to be the only two people that Aeryn Sun trusted to hold her child. That trust still seemed entirely unearned to Jack, but it helped verify her story in his mind. If the child's father really was some other version of John, divergent only because of some accident which had befallen him in the Farscape, and if she had know the other Jack as well, then maybe it all kind of made sense, even to an old man with limited imagination.

At that moment, DK appeared. "I got it…" he called out triumphantly to Jack, holding aloft a baby seat for a car. Then his head turned from Jack, staring deeper into the hangar. "Jeez, what the hell sort of ship is that!" DK exclaimed, catching his first sight of the prowler's sleek and deadly lines.

"Huh? That, son is you and Laura's project for the next couple of days," Jack said, enjoying DK's reaction and incomprehension. Deke gurgled and then chuckled, seeming to appreciative the humour in the situation. This could turn out to be a whole lot of fun, the old man decided. Just so long as things didn't turn south and they managed to keep a lid on what they were up to.

John and Laura looked on, sharing a coffee and a chat while Aeryn and DK wasted no time in methodically removing the scorched panels on the rear quarter of her prowler. Jack had left the four of them alone and gone off elsewhere, running interference, putting on his most sincere face and voice to try to convince anyone who asked any awkward questions that Aeryn's prowler was all part of someone else's top secret project which he couldn't possibly talk about. D'Argo was watching his mother work, gurgling quietly, now safely secured in the car seat or, as Laura had charmingly termed it, the baby bucket.

"Looks nasty…" John commented moving over to get a closer look at the damage to the prowler.

"Mmm hmmm," Aeryn replied, not really paying attention to him, but focussed on the damage and wondering how she was going to fix it without her John.

"Not seen anything like that before! What sort of propulsion system does this ship use?" DK asked, still as excited as a boy with a new toy and craning to get a closer look over Aeryn's shoulder. "Kerosene-LOX? Hydrogen?"

"I think we're going to have to tell him," John stated to Aeryn. "If he's going to help?"

"Tell him what?" She turned slightly, considering what John had said, her hands still lodged in the prowler's innards. "Oh, yes, I suppose so. But only DK…" she insisted, returning to her work.

"You wanna do the honours?" John asked Laura, although it wasn't really a question. DK and Laura were already pairing up, while John moved to stand beside Aeryn in the place vacated by DK.

"Give you a hand there?" John asked Aeryn a little too casually and a little too cockily.

"Hmm…." She replied absently, her attention buried once again in the prowler. "If you could just disconnect the chakkan oil feed line…?"

"Umm… well, I would if I had the first clue what that might be…" John replied, a little less confident now.

Aeryn stopped and looked at him carefully. She had forgotten for a microt or two that he was not her John, that he had no idea about the workings of a prowler. It had all been just too familiar, the pair of them working side by side, his voice offering to help her. But, of course, he was not her John. She resolved to be more careful in future, lest she make any more unfortunate oversights, cross any more lines.

"Of course, I am sorry John. I forgot for a microt." Forgot that her John was, well, somewhere else entirely, probably worried sick for her and D'Argo. She quickly wiped away the hint of a tear with the back of her hand before, she hoped, this John noticed that it was there. "You know, I do not think the damage is as bad as I thought, just a couple of punctured feed lines and broken wires…." She tried to force her thoughts back onto safer ground.

John opened his mouth, about to say something flippant, but never got the chance.

"Holy shit!" DK shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I think she's told him," John smirked. Aeryn turned, catching the amused look in John's eye as he grinned at her, but also noticing how that look turned to another look that she knew only too-well. She knew, but had never really understood, that John had always found her rather attractive with her hair in disarray, her face and hands dirty. She quickly cleared her throat and turned her head back away, not wanting to encourage this John.

"I guess she has," she replied, suppressing a chuckle at DK's reaction. She realized that she had to be careful just how much further she encouraged John. "Come on, we've got work to do."

'~'

"We're taking a big risk doing this," Jack reminded his companions as he drove them through the evening traffic towards his home.

Aeryn shrugged from her position in the back seat, Jack catching the gesture in his rear view mirror. "We all have to sleep and eat, especially Deke. And I am more comfortable being with you than alone on the base. Besides, it makes your cover story seem more believable and means that I can spend the evening briefing you."

John was not complaining. Any chance to spend more quality time with Aeryn and Deke, his alleged could-have-been-wife and child, was not something he was going to pass up.

"What have you told Olivia?" Aeryn asked, breaking John's train of thought just as he was about to reach out and touch her hair, as though to confirm that she was real.

"Huh? Oh, just that a colleague from out of town is visiting for a few days and could she come over…." John replied, blushing. John had moved back in with Jack the year before, after his break up with Caroline, as both men preferred the company to living alone. Although Olivia had her own apartment, it was not far away. She still maintained her old room at her father's house and normally needed little excuse to spend the odd night there.

"Are you not afraid that she will guess the truth? You sister is very perceptive," Aeryn continued. Deke reached out a grasping hand towards Aeryn. She offered him a finger to hold on to and a smile, which she hoped was reassuring and did not betray her own uncertainties. She was starting to wonder whether it had been a good idea of hers to ask to meet Olivia during her stay. She had really liked Olivia, but she was starting to remember how hard it had been to keep any secrets from John's incisive and persistent sister.

"What, that an alien chick has fallen from the sky, complete with my kid in her arms? I don't think even Livvy is that perceptive," John laughed off Aeryn's concerns.

Aeryn frowned for a few moments, then brightened a little as she gave a tart response. "You can be just as frelling annoying as my John. Of course she will not guess that. But she is bound to notice that something is not right."

"Well, too late now. Guess we'll get to find out," drawled Jack as he pulled into the street where he lived. "Looks like she's already home."

'~'

"Make yourself at home, Aeryn, take the weight off," Jack invited, motioning to one of the couches as they made their way into the living room.

Aeryn looked around her, taking in the spacious, inviting room. Apart from the absence of Christmas decorations, it was almost exactly as she had remembered it: The large TV in one corner and the even larger brick fireplace beside it, with the two white, leather sofas and their darker cushions set in front. Then there was the long fragile, wooden table and its matching chairs, although it was no longer set for a feast. There were the same pictures on the walls and on almost every small surface: Family, spacecraft and other things, which she did not understand. And of course, there was the low, glass table which the Skreeth had shattered by throwing her down on to it.

The last time Aeryn had been here, she had come intending to say goodbye and thank-you to Olivia, but had gotten herself into a confrontation with John and then into a fight to the death with the green assassin. She had also discovered that John had been using lakka to try to forget her. If she had not been there, would her John, or any of his family, have survived the attack? Or would she have subsequently confronted him over the lakka and his behaviour in the way that she had, so beginning the recovery of their relationship? She shivered involuntarily at all the possibilities that her imagination was constructing.

"Are you OK?" Jack asked, noticing her pensive unease and laying a comforting hand on her elbow.

"Yes, I'm fine," she smiled wanly back, not wanting to get into an explanation of the circumstances surrounding the last time she had been here or on what might have been. She could easily see how just one decision could change the future of a reality forever.

"Hi Liv, we're home, do you wanna come meet our guests…." John called out, his words trailing off as Olivia came through from the kitchen, a big, welcoming smile on her face.

"Guests? Oh, I see," beamed Olivia, seeing the baby in the arms of the curiously-attired young woman now settling on the larger of the two couches. People in her social circle, or those of her father and brother, didn't normally dress like that.

Aeryn resisted the urge to be initially over familiar with her old friend, much less acknowledge their friendship, knowing full-well that to do so might jeopardize the already shaky cover story that they had concocted.

Olivia seemed, to Aeryn, to be taking a good long, appraising look at her and Deke. "Now I understand why John asked you to stay over," smirked Olivia, with an exaggerated wink, making straight for Aeryn. Aeryn couldn't hide her embarrassment at Olivia's ready, suggestive familiarity. Her reaction only seemed to amuse Olivia the more so. "I'm afraid it isn't you honey," Olivia mock-whispered conspiratorially, plonking herself on the sofa next to Aeryn and immediately trying to catch Deke's attention. "It's the little 'un. John just loves kids…"

"I kn…." Aeryn began, catching herself almost as soon as she'd begun. Olivia raised an enquiring eyebrow but didn't press her by commenting.

"So, you going to introduce your new friends?" Olivia enquired with a sly grin as she began to play with Deke, walking her fingers up his arms and rubbing his nose.

"Sure. Sorry," John smiled, perching on the arm of the sofa behind Aeryn. "Olivia, my sister, meet Aeryn Sun. Aeryn's an astronaut from England, come to talk science with us geeks for a few days. And her son, Deke, who it seems you've already met."

"I see," Olivia replied, looking from John to Aeryn and back again in a way that implied that she thought she really did know and that what she knew wasn't covered by what John had told her. "How long you two known each other?" Deke had hold of Olivia's little finger now and was not letting go.

"A while," Aeryn answered at the same moment as John had said "Just met." Coughs and red faces were followed by a momentary silence and another raised eyebrow.

"It's not every visiting out-of-town astronaut that he asks home, you know?" Olivia continued, breaking the silence.

"Well, it didn't seem hospitable to make her stay at the Holiday Inn, what with the baby and all…" John blustered.

"And it just so happened that you offered to put her up, rather than one of the girls?" Livvy teased.

At that moment, Jack re-entered, carrying a tray of refreshments. "Actually, Livvy, it was me that asked Aeryn to stay. Besides, John and Aeryn have to work this evening. Having her to stay over seemed the most civil thing to do."

Jack put the tray down on the glass coffee table before seating himself on the other couch. "Now, what does everyone fancy for dinner tonight," Jack smiled.

As the adults finished the last of the take-out they had ordered for dinner, D'Argo stretched and writhed fitfully. "I'm sorry, he is tired. I really ought to put him to bed," Aeryn explained.

"Of course, where's my manners?" Put in Jack. "The guest room is up the stairs, third on the right."

"I'll show you," Olivia added, bouncing to her feet. 'C'mon, I'll take your bag for you," she continued holding out her hand and nodding at Aeryn to follow her.

Aeryn shrugged at Jack before handing Olivia up her small flight bag and standing to follow.

"Where's the rest of your stuff?" Olivia asked.

"Damn airline lost her bag," Jack put in, much to Aeryn's relief. She nodded enthusiastically to confirm Jack's story.

"And I don't suppose these two thought to take you to the mall, to pick up essentials?" Olivia asked.

Aeryn shook her head. "It's fine, I can just borrow what I need off John," she explained without thinking. It seemed a perfectly reasonable solution to Aeryn, but now she wondered how reasonable it might seem to everyone else when the two men erupted in embarrassed coughing and Livvy arched that questioning eyebrow yet again.

"Say what?" Olivia asked.

"Once you've put Deke to bed, how about I stay here with him and John and Olivia can take you to the 7-11, get some things? It's another few hours until they close," Jack rescued Aeryn from having to reply. "But you'd better get going," he concluded, waving the two women from the room.

A few minutes later, having changed him for the night into one of the fresh diapers which Jack had sent out for back at the base, Aeryn put Deke down in the big guest bed, framed and bolstered by a pillow to either side.

"Don't you have a sleepsuit for him….?" Olivia asked, once it was clear that Aeryn was putting Deke down in nothing but a diaper.

"No… I… ummm, lost it. My luggage," Aeryn answered. The truth, of course, was that she had not intended her trip away from Moya to include an overnight stay. She was relieved when Olivia did not pursue the point.

"Maybe we should try and get one at the store?"

"Hmm, yes. Maybe we should."

"He's so cute," cooed Olivia as Aeryn reached out to smooth Deke's hair. "Get's that from you I guess?" Aeryn did not respond to Olivia's subtle invitation to discuss the baby's father. Olivia tried another tack. "You're so lucky to have such a quiet baby. He hardly gave a peep all evening."

"Are some babies louder than Deke when they cry, then?" Aeryn asked, a little concern showing on her face, as she thoroughly misunderstood the details of what being a quiet baby involved. Olivia spared Aeryn a curious look but, when no immediate explanation presented itself regarding Aeryn's apparent ignorance about babies, Olivia moved on.

"He looks a little like John," Olivia mused absently, trying to lighten the mood with a light remark and a bubbly laugh. Aeryn froze, causing Olivia instantly to stare at her once again, wondering what was wrong. Olivia looked from Aeryn's now white face down to Deke, wondering whether it was something to do with the child. That was when Olivia noticed the ring on Aeryn's left hand. Olivia stared at it for a moment, frowning in confused semi-recognition. Her confusion was multiplied when Aeryn seemed to suddenly pull her hand back, shielding it from view with her right hand.

"What's the matter Aeryn?" Olivia asked softly, concern written over her face. She lifted a sympathetic hand to Aeryn's arm.

"N.. nothing. It's nothing. We should go back downstairs, or we will wake the baby. Besides, I know John wants to talk to me about work…." She finished, now blushing, as she hurriedly made her way to the door. Frowning, wondering what on Earth was going on, Olivia took one last glance at Deke and followed her.

'~'

John and Aeryn had been working non-stop for about an hour at the dining room table, augmenting their conversation with the occasional paper sketch or brief diversion on John's laptop. As they were clearly both superfluous and out of their depth, Jack and Olivia at first sat on the sidelines and eventually retired to the kitchen.

"They're like peas in a pod, aren't they?" Laughed Jack, nodding towards the living room where John and Aeryn were deep in an earnest technical conversation. He held up the coffee jug. "You want some?"

"Uh, no thanks." Olivia replied, biting her lip, wondering what to say regarding her brother and the leather-clad, raven-haired beauty he was ensconced with next door. "Well, she's not exactly his normal type, but….." She had seen the signs all evening: The way John had kept glancing at Aeryn when he had thought Aeryn would not notice; the way that Aeryn could only seem to tear her gaze away from John when he was out of the room or when she was paying attention to her baby. But there were details worrying Olivia.

"Look, dad, there's something funny going on, isn't there. I mean, she's wearing a wedding ring, right? So she's married? And she's over here for a visit, with her baby, but she's got nothing with her, not even a carry-on? I mean, what's all that about?" Olivia blurted out in one train of consciousness exposition.

"Airline lost her bags…." Jack put in, trying to think on his feet, but knowing that she would have had a large cabin bag to see her through a long flight with a baby. Livvy let that one pass and moved on to her next point.

"And when we were putting Deke down, I sort of asked who the father was and she went all weird on me for a moment." Jack blanched and fiddled with his coffee, piling in more sugar than was normal for him.

"I, ummm."

"You know dad, don't you!" Olivia accused him. Jack tried to turn away. "You do know something don't you…? Tell me or I might just march right in there and…."

"No Livvy!" Olivia was shocked both at the seriousness in Jack's voice and by the fact that he had swiftly moved beside her to grab her arm. "You mustn't. Look, I know what's going on, John knows too. Maybe we can tell you in a few days but not now."

"It is fine, Jack," came Aeryn's voice, unexpectedly, from where she had just appeared in he doorway with two empty mugs in her hands. She moved closer to Jack and Livvy, putting the mugs down on the counter. "It's alright. I know it must sound strange to you, but I know that I can trust you, Olivia. I will tell you what you want to know." Aeryn looked down at the mugs, sighed as she braced herself for another round of revelation, shocked disbelief, and interrogation. She laughed ever so slightly to herself. "You know, I was coming through to get some more coffee and tea, but maybe something stronger would be more appropriate?"

'~'

Aeryn had retired to bed, exhausted and John had shortly afterwards made his own excuses and retired to his room, leaving Olivia and Jack alone in the kitchen with their hot chocolate drinks.

"Wow…." Olivia breathed, clutching her steaming mug. Jack raised a questioning eyebrow to his youngest daughter. "I mean, it's just so much to take in. I mean, I want to believe her, she's so nice an'all, but…. Are you sure she's not just some crazy…?" Olivia's question trailed off: She didn't need to finish it for Jack to fill in a number of possible endings.

"Hell, Livvy, I know exactly what you mean," Jack replied, shaking his head. "It's one unbelievable story, that's for sure." He took a long swig from his own drink before continuing. "I don't reckon I'd be half so keen to believe it myself if I hadn't seen the ship they came in on. But now I've heard that story two or three times, it's starting to make sense even to your old man."

"It's all the little details… she seems to know us all so well, but John most of all…" Olivia remarked.

"If that woman isn't somehow close to John, she's one hell of an actress, and a well-briefed one at that," Jack agreed, before taking a last gulp of his drink.

To Be Continued (the three most hated words for any Scaper)


	2. Day Two

**Day Two**

Aeryn glanced across at the alarm clock beside her bed, her superior Sebacean eyesight having no difficulty seeing the clock face even in the dim half-light, the moonlight that had crept past the curtains: It was second arn, if she correctly recalled how to interpret human timepieces. It was too early to get up out of bed, but the couple of arns of sleep she had already had had taken the edge of her exhaustion and now she was lying awake thinking. Normally, should she have woken mid sleep-cycle, she would have got up for half an arn to distract herself, but tonight she was trying not to wake Deke, who was lying in the bed beside her.

As she lay there she listened to the sounds of the house around her, not that there was much for her to hear of course. Not like on a ship, like Moya, or on a command carrier. The quiet of the planet's night unnerved her, as it had the year before. In addition, she had never before spent a night here, in John's home on Earth, and that thought disrupted her equilibrium. It struck her as somewhat ironic that now that she was at last spending the night in his house, she was both married to John, yet was not sharing a bed with him.

Frelling fate, frelling with her life once again! Fate, if they could be thought of as a person, seemed to be even worse than John Crichton at interfering in her life.

Aeryn knew that this line of thought was getting her nowhere. She needed to be fresh and alert tomorrow, she would need her wits about her. If she could sleep in the middle of a battle, she could surely sleep here, in a comfortable bed, safe in John's house? Calling on her PeaceKeeper training in self-control, and comforting herself with the memory of John's face, as he had smiled at her lovingly yesterday on Moya as he had waved her off, she willed herself back to sleep.

'~'

John lay awake in bed, his mind racing in ever decreasing circles, struggling to make sense of the day, trying to understand his feelings regarding the intriguing woman who even now should be fast asleep in the next room. But how could he make sense of it all, when none of it really make any sense? He knew that his thoughts were not constructive, but he couldn't seem to switch those thoughts off, so round and round his head they went.

It must be about two in the morning: He needed to get back to sleep, needed to be alert tomorrow. Maybe things would make more sense in the morning? John knew how to get back to sleep, though. He had been taught several useful techniques during his astronaut training: Focus on something simple and pleasant. After a few minutes of aimlessly thinking of various things, John found himself picturing Aeryn's face, her grey eyes, her enigmatic smile, the frame of her ebony hair.

Breathing her name slowly, like a mantra, he drifted back off to sleep.

'~'

John shrugged on his robe and shuffled, zombie-like, towards the kitchen. He hadn't slept too well, what with everything on his mind. Last night he had been unable to escape thinking that in the guest room slept a woman who claimed to be an alien, his wife but not his wife, the mother of his son… the list just went on. Aeryn had talked with him long into the evening, trying, as best she could, to explain the basics of wormholes, faster-than-light drives, and even a brief introduction to the politics on her side of the wormhole. Well, if you've believed six impossible things before breakfast…. John's thoughts freewheeled. It had been mind-bending, but sort of fun. He had really enjoyed her company and had been more than a little disappointed when Aeryn had eventually claimed that, for her, it was the middle of the sleep cycle and that she was exhausted and needed to sleep.

At the top of the stairs, John bumped into Olivia, who had stayed over and was also now heading down for breakfast. Livvy had taken Aeryn's claims remarkably calmly, if he recalled the night before correctly. That had probably been helped by the stiff drink, which Aeryn had insisted on to prepare the ground before she had told Olivia her story.

"Uh!" John grunted and ruffled his hair.

"You look like could use a coffee," his sister smirked.

"Yup."

"More so than normal. C'mon."

"Uhh," he grunted and followed her downstairs. How come he felt like he had the hangover which rightly belonged to her?

The siblings shuffled their way into the kitchen, almost as though it was any other morning. Except that this morning the room was already occupied. The radiant Aeryn Sun sat at the table, feeding something to Deke from a small bowl. She looked up and smiled apologetically when the two younger Crichtons entered. Deke looked up at the newcomers, but then immediately returned his attention to his breakfast.

"I hope you don't mind: He was hungry and I did not want to wake anyone," Aeryn explained, indicating the milk-sodden cereal that she was in the process of spoon-feeding to her son.

"Umm, that's… umm… fine. No problem," John stumbled to know what to say. Aeryn was dressed in nothing but a strappy black T-shirt, what appeared to be a pair of white, men's boxer shorts and, most incongruously of all, her large black leather combat boots, the gleaming metal buckles of which seemed to be only loosely secured. He thought she looked rather cute, in an oddball sort of way, although he had to make a conscious effort not to stare too long at the impressive length of leg that she was displaying. He had only known her for a few hours, after all, and he had no idea how she might react to being leered at. He had already been surprised a few times, the day before, when a variety of little events had illustrated to him that her culture and perspectives were very different to his own.

Aeryn could tell that the two humans were both staring at her, but couldn't immediately connect why. Maybe a little of John's reaction could be put down to sexual interest, but that left Olivia. Thinking back to her previous visit to Earth, and an incident when they had been out shopping when Olivia had seen her almost naked, or should that be dressed like a tralk, Aeryn was fairly certain that Olivia did not have any sexual interest in her. So, Aeryn concluded, there must be something else causing them both to stare at her.

As a Peacekeeper Aeryn had been used to having very little personal privacy and her companions on Moya had never set much store by dress codes either. When baby D'Argo had awoken, hungry, half an arn earlier she had simply ensured that she was sufficiently dressed that she was unlikely to be regarded as indecent, pulled on the only footwear she had, and made her way to the kitchen.

"What's wrong," Aeryn asked with a frown. She knew humans had some peculiar attitudes about all sorts things, but she had no idea what sort of transgression she had committed against their norms of behaviour this time.

"Oh, honey, you really haven't got a…. thing to wear, have you?" Olivia replied, managing to catch herself before she said 'haven't got a clue.' "I think we're going to need to do a trip to the mall this morning… get you some shoes and clothes and stuff." Then another thought occurred to her. "And I could lend you some of mine, if you like?"

"Do you reckon they'd fit?" John asked in a pre-coffee absent-minded daze as he apparently tried to remember how the coffee machine worked. That remark earned him a swat across the back of the head from Olivia.

"Ow, oh sorry, sis," he replied, realising his mistake too late to avoid the rebuke, or was that realising only because of the rebuke? Even he couldn't tell.

"Actually, yes, they probably will," Aeryn said, pushing another spoon into Deke's mouth even as, without realising it, she came to Olivia's defence. "I borrowed some clothes from you last year... Even your shoes fitted."

"Well, there you go then," Olivia crowed triumphantly as John finally got to grips with the coffee machine. "Now what would you like for breakfast, Aeryn? I'll fix you something."

'~'

Aeryn clutched Deke closer to her, steeled her resolve, and pressed on into the maelstrom, or shopping mall, as the humans had abbreviated it. It wasn't that she wasn't used to such crowds or that she was afraid of them: Frell, she was a Peacekeeper, afraid of nothing. She was used to being in large groups and she had visited plenty of commerce planets over the last few cycles. It was just that this particular mall held some peculiar and difficult memories for her. Aeryn edged out of the main stream of shoppers and backed up to a quiet stretch of blank wall while recovering her usual level of stoical composure.

"Are you OK, Aeryn?" asked Olivia, the seemingly ever-present shadow by her side. "You look a little bit shaken up."

"I'm fine, really," Aeryn forced a smile for Olivia's benefit. How could she explain that she had been here before, with Olivia, Chiana, a retinue of secret service agents and, of course, not another shopper in sight? It was a disturbing feeling to be here again, even without the upsetting memories.

"Really? Are you sure… I mean, you look like someone's walked over your grave?" Olivia persisted. Aeryn scowled, entirely failing to comprehend the true meaning of Olivia's strange remark. But then, Aeryn reminded herself, humans, and Crichtons in particular, were known for making strange, incomprehensible remarks.

"I'm fine. Really. We should move on," Aeryn insisted. They walked on, away from the entrance, reaching a quieter part of the mall. Once there, Aeryn felt a little more comfortable that she would not be overheard if she explained some of what she was thinking to Olivia.

"You see, Olivia… I have been here before, with you…" Aeryn tentatively explained, walking slowly on towards where the shop for baby accoutrements had been the cycle before. Aeryn was comforted to see that it was still there, just as she remembered it. It would be an excellent place to get anything she might need for D'Argo.

"Did we have fun?" Olivia asked with an easy smile, trying to make her clearly still quite uneasy companion a little more comfortable.

"A little," Aeryn admitted. "But there was no one else here, except for my friend Chiana, the merchants and my secret service guards."

"Guards?" Olivia interrupted, a little surprised.

"For the alien visitors," Aeryn explained with such sad resignation that Olivia could not fail to notice.

"Oh!" Olivia exclaimed, starting to understand what it must have been like for her, visiting Earth as a known extraterrestrial. She elected to change the subject rather than insensitively to press Aeryn on the point. "So what did we buy?" She asked, deciding that was probably safer ground.

"You helped me to buy some presents for John," Aeryn remembered, brightening up a little. Even if the act of buying them had sometimes been upsetting, she had enjoyed sharing the objects with John some time later, and for that experience she was grateful to Olivia. "Some things for when I had the baby. And some other things. And I think you tried to get me drunk, to get me to tell you about John and myself." Olivia's face clearly spoke that she did not understand that revelation, either.

"You were pregnant and I tried to get you drunk?" Olivia asked in shocked disbelief. She was horrified that the alternate version of herself would do such an irresponsible thing.

"You did not know until after lunch, and I think you were trying to cheer me up: I was very unhappy when we were here," Aeryn tried to explain. But her words caused Olivia to look at her with an even more questioning expression.

"What was wrong?" Olivia probed. Aeryn wondered what, or how much, to divulge, hoping that by revealing one explanation as to what had been wrong she could avoid any thought on Olivia's part that there might have been other things wrong as well, things that she did not feel comfortable talking about.

"John did not want anyone here to know about us. He especially did not want anyone to know that I was pregnant," Aeryn explained, almost holding her breath while she waited to see if that would be enough for Olivia or whether Olivia might press her on other, more personal issues.

"Oh!" Olivia responded, the penny dropping. In Aeryn's reality she had visited Earth as a known alien and the companion of a missing, but now returned astronaut. That must have been such a difficult experience for her – the eyes of the world must have been on her and John. She could well imagine that they, well, John, would not have wanted anyone to know that they were an item and that Aeryn was pregnant with their child.

"He was scared. For me, for the baby," Aeryn added, confirming Olivia's thoughts. "Should people find out."

"But now, this time…." Olivia began, thinking that things would surely be better on this visit, in this reality. Aeryn and her baby could just blend right in.

"I am still terrified," Aeryn admitted, clutching Deke closer to her, protectively, surprised that she had admitted such a weakness to Olivia. But then Olivia had always been good at getting her to let her guard down. "If the wrong people were to find out about us, now, what do you imagine they might do?" The question was phrased rhetorically, as Aeryn had fairly well-developed fears on that score, fears which had been vividly illustrated by the ancients, cycles before.

"But you trust us?" Olivia asked, ignoring answering what she hoped was indeed meant as a rhetorical question, and trying to lighten the mood with a smile and a gentle touch to Aeryn's arm.

"Yes, I do," Aeryn replied. But then, I have little choice, she thought to herself as they arrived at the familiar store.

'~'

"Looks like you're almost all there, then," John commented as Aeryn fiddled with a small component of the prowler, clicking it back into place amongst the exposed innards behind the cockpit. She only grunted in reply, as her mouth was taken up with holding an adjustable wrench and her attention was similarly almost as completely absorbed with returning the small, fragile, probably irreplaceable circuit board in front of her to its rightful place without causing it any damage.

Aeryn, Laura and John had spent a long morning stripping down, checking and reassembling large sections of the prowler's propulsion system. DK was in another workshop, trying to fashion a replacement for a couple of damaged components. The main item that they needed to replace was a long, twisted pipe. It was part of the fuel supply system, according to Aeryn, who had given a running commentary as they worked, trying to explain as best she could how the prowler's engines functioned. In an odd way, John was enormously grateful that Laura was there working alongside him and Aeryn: John knew that time was short and they would likely get this precious lecture only once, but he struggled to give his full concentration to the work at hand. A good part of his mind was taken up with focusing on his instructor, how she spoke, how she moved, the occasional, electric moments of physical contact as they busied themselves about the space-fighter's engines. John knew that it was silly – he was acting like a teenager with a crush he was too scared to act on – but he just could not help but be fascinated by Aeryn.

As John watched Aeryn fix one of the last remaining intact components back in place, his cellphone buzzed. He pulled the phone out of his pants pocket, saw that it was DK's number on the display, and flipped it open.

"Yup?" John drawled. As DK talked, Aeryn and Laura both stood back from the prowler. Laura waved and pointed to indicate she was off. She was probably going to the restroom, John thought absently, as they had been working without a break for several hours. While he spoke to DK, Aeryn headed over towards a nearby workbench. John watched her appreciatively, his attention torn between concentrating on the fascinating way her ebony ponytail bounced around on her nearly-bare shoulders and on appreciating those parts of her south of her shoulders and the way that they moved as she walked. Had Laura elected to stay in the hanger, John probably would have scarcely noticed that she was still there.

Aeryn sat down by the bench, wiped her hands on a rag and took a sip of water from a cup as John finished his almost one-sided conversation with DK.

"DK says we've got to wait for tomorrow for the new pipework for the engine to be finished," John remarked, flipping off his phone and slapping the side of the prowler. His phone was still in his other hand as he walked over to join Aeryn, who remained seated as he came to join her.

"Frell! Then there is nothing more we can do here today," snapped Aeryn. John sat opposite her and looked at her carefully. She seemed pensive, pre-occupied. She noticed his stare and knew that he was worrying about how she was coping with everything. Even though he hardly knew her, she felt that she knew him fairly well. She was married to him, after all: Worrying about her was just one of the many ways that this John was so like her John. "I am sorry, I do not cope well with waiting around," she tried to explain. It was all very unfair for him, really, she thought: She knew him so well, knew what he was probably thinking, but he had only known her for a few arns, and she was thus almost entirely a mystery to him.

"You should try. Waiting around, I mean. After all, it's not so bad here, is it? It'd be nice if you could stay a while?" he suggested with forlorn hope.

"I can't. Really I can't. Once the solar flares begin, I have to go." Aeryn stated, almost pleading with him to understand, willing him not to make this any more difficult than it already had to be for both of them.

"You've got to get back to him… to the other me," John nodded in glum understanding. He turned his face away sadly, half-afraid of the truth he would see in her sad, storm-grey eyes, but oddly half-thrilled at the same time. The woman in front of him was clearly deeply in love with John Crichton. It was just unfortunate, from his perspective, that she happened to be in love with a different John Crichton to the one sitting next to her. Even so, the thought that it was possible for him, seemingly confirmed bachelor that he was, to have married someone… correction, to have married her, both intrigued and delighted him.

"Yes. Yes, I do, John. Please try to understand. This is…" she struggled for an appropriate word from her English vocabulary. "Nice? Being here, being able to spend time with you, and with your family, to show them my… our son. It is something I have long wished to do. But it is not MY reality. You are not my husband." Aeryn insisted. He turned his face away again at that remark, trying to hide his crestfallen expression. Aeryn could see that something had crossed his face, which she took to be sadness or regret, or maybe both, knowing John as she did. Tenderly, she reached out a hand and gently captured his, pulling his attention back to her. "Please understand. I have to get back to him, as soon as I can."

"He's a lucky sonofabitch, the other me," John said softly, smiling back at her with damp eyes. Aeryn wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Isn't there someone here? For you?" She hazarded. "Alex? Caroline?"

"He told you about them, huh?" Of course he did, what else would he expect? What else would he have done, had it been him out there, married to her? "Nothing that ever worked out. Guess I never met the right girl." John forced a smile back at Aeryn. "And I'm what they call between relationships at the moment."

"I am sorry."

"Don't be. I reckon it's what comes of only dating blondes," he laughed, trying to lighten the conversation a little. Aeryn hesitated a microt before allowing herself to raise an eyebrow and chuckle along with him.

"My John had that tendency, too. But that is all behind him now."

"Yeah, I bet it is." John replied, looking at her carefully for a few microts too long.

"Come on, we might as well go," Aeryn changed subjects abruptly, more than a little uncomfortable with the tide of the conversation and with the intensity of John's attention. "Besides, your sister must be getting bored with looking after D'Argo by now."

"Livvy? Bored with babies? Nah," John laughed, but got up anyway, offering Aeryn his hand to pull her to her feet. "Come on, let's go pick up the little un', and I'll take you both somewhere fun."

"I would like that," she replied, dazzling him with one of her broadest smiles.

'~'

Aeryn was in the process of hanging her long, leather coat on the hook by the front door when she heard Deke's sustained, ear-splitting shriek from behind the closed door that led to the living room.

Aeryn's coat fell to the floor, abandoned in mid-air. John found that he scarcely had time to do more than observe as Aeryn sped to the door, a small pistol-like object seeming miraculously to appear in her right hand. He could only marvel at how quietly she opened and moved through the door, considering the speed she was moving at: she seemed as stealthy as an assassin in some TV show.

John stepped through to the lounge to find Aeryn, feet apart, small, alien gun raised and braced in both hands, apparently ready for anything. She was looking down at Olivia and Deke who were on the rug in front of the fireplace.

Olivia had looked up, turned white as a ghost at the sight of the gun and had immediately stopped tickling Deke.

Apart from Deke's now subsiding laughter, an embarrassed silence fell over the room. Aeryn lowered her gun and muttered something short and, to John and Olivia, thoroughly incomprehensible.

"I am sorry," Aeryn continued in English. The gun vanished and her cheeks flushed slightly. "I was worried. I thought…" she didn't finish, not knowing how or even whether it was wise to share what she had been thinking when she had heard the shriek.

"What?" John nevertheless asked impulsively, overcome by the feral emotions unleashed in the last few seconds.

"I, umm, thought someone was attacking D'Argo," she replied. She really didn't want to get into a long conversation about how dangerous their lives were, about all the different people back home who wanted one or more of them dead or enslaved. She certainly did not wish to start a conversation on her fears regarding what people on Earth might do to her or Deke. Fortunately, she did not have to, as when Olivia spoke, she seemed keen not to press the matter.

"Umm, it's… ummm… fine… Really," Olivia responded, not entirely sure what she should say. She was somewhat shocked to have looked up to find Aeryn standing over her, gun in hand. Even though the whole incident had only taken a couple of seconds, the sight of the gun and the accompanying look of steely determination on Aeryn's face would be difficult to shake off.

"Erm, we just came over to collect Deke and were gonna head out," John tried to paper over the misunderstanding.

"Umm, I really ought to be going too," Olivia responded, lifting Deke, standing, and handing him back to Aeryn without catching her eye. "I oughta be getting to work."

For the next few minutes, as they prepared to leave, both Aeryn and Olivia studiously avoided eye contact with each other. Olivia however, did make a point of saying that Aeryn ought to borrow some of her light summer clothes as it was shaping up to be a hot afternoon, and Aeryn agreed without argument, both women grateful for the distraction from their misunderstanding and the chance to normalize relations a little. Half an hour after John and Aeryn had arrived, they all left the house together, Olivia heading off for work, John, Aeryn and Deke going elsewhere.

'~'

Aeryn was delighted with the opportunity to visit Disney. She had heard John talk about the place before of course, many times, and had found out a little about it during her previous visit to Earth. She had even visited another of their parks, in California accompanied by Chiana, as part of the goodwill tour which the authorities had sent them on. Yet despite her prior knowledge, she still found the reality of a place so devoted to frivolous entertainment to be truly astonishing.

Once they arrived John had taken Aeryn and Deke on a whirlwind tour of what he thought would be the most amusing diversions suitable for a child as young as he was. After all, they only had a few hours to spare.

Although Deke was too young to know quite what to make of much of the park, he nevertheless spent much of the afternoon gurgling and laughing in delight. The character actors had particularly amused and excited him, although some other children of his age seemed to find the less human and more frightening examples a little intimidating. To a child of the Uncharted Territories, they seemed perfectly normal, tame even.

"I do not understand why you say that we cannot take him on the rollercoaster," Aeryn said, trying to persuade John that Deke would be able to cope with anything the park had to offer, including the large, Space-themed ride that they were currently standing outside.

"It's just not suitable for a kid of his age," John insisted with a frown. He had been quite surprised that Aeryn saw nothing wrong with taking Deke on some of the larger rides, which were, to his eyes, clearly quite unsuitable for a child of his age.

"But only yesterday he was in my prowler when we were under attack by the Kkore," Aeryn had persisted. "He did not even cry out. An amusement ride will cause him no distress at all."

"That may be," John conceded, shrugging almost frantically. With some trepidation as to how the fiercely proud and assertive woman before him might react, he pointed to a sign by the entrance to the nearest ride in question. "Look, the park itself forbids youngsters on these rides. It's not just me." He pleaded, trying to make it less about him and Aeryn not seeing eye to eye.

"Frelling stupid rule," Aeryn harrumphed and seemed to John to go into a short sulk, but she soon rallied and got over it, much to his relief and slight surprise. He had no idea how much obeying rules was ingrained into her psyche, having been beaten into her almost since birth. "Come on, let's find something else to do then." She added, not wanting to waste any more precious time on a lost cause. Deke, of course, had no idea what he was missing and didn't complain at all.

They strolled back towards the fairytale castle casually discussing what to do next. However, as they reached the main thoroughfare, a parade began, and taking advantage of their good timing, they settled to watch, their earlier disagreement seemingly forgotten for now.

As the parade progressed a number of the more grotesque parade characters made their way past. A slightly older child, just motras away from them, was openly distressed when one of the strangely dressed figures came up to personally greet him, but when the same character moved on to Deke, Aeryn was delighted to see and hear that, in contrast to the human infant, her son whooped and squealed in delight at the attention.

"You see, John. Deke is much more able to cope with things than a child raised here," Aeryn commented triumphantly. John pretended he hadn't heard and continued to make a big thing of enjoying the parade. He was relieved that Aeryn seemed to go back to enjoying the show. A couple of floats later, Aeryn spoke again.

"John," she asked, her brow furrowed. "Why does the same female character appear over and over again in this parade?"

"Huh? I'm not sure what you mean?" John replied, not understanding what she meant. Some of the dancers were in similar costumes, but not the main characters.

"Well, not exactly the same, she has slightly different hairstyles and a different ridiculous outfit each time. But the theme is essentially the same. Look. There, there and there." Aeryn pointed out three different examples of Disney Princesses.

"Ah!" John exclaimed, beginning to understand.

"Well, they're not the same, but it's kind of a common theme in fairy stories: The beautiful princess and the handsome prince… they meet, fall in love, live happily ever after. You know?"

Aeryn had, eventually, found out about the Pwintheth in Stark's computer game, gaining most of her insights during a late night drinking session with Chiana (well, Chiana had been drinking and Aeryn could not sleep) when Moya was hiding in Tormented Space over a year earlier. The only other example of a princess with which she was familiar was Katralla. Both experiences had left her wondering at some of the thoughts that went on deep in Crichton's mind with regards to his view of females. She mulled over the implications of this new revelation about humans for a few microts.

"So, John, is this Princess thing a common fantasy amongst human males?" She asked, taking care not to sound too aggressive and scare him into being discreet with his answer. If John had known her better he might have recognized the dangerous set in her jaw. However, as he had only known her for a couple of days and further had no idea that the word princess might give Aeryn pause for thought, he ploughed on, unaware, deeper into potentially hostile territory.

"Well, I guess... Girls too. It's fun, romantic. Y'know?"

"Hmm. I can see I will have to have another serious talk with my John when I get home," Aeryn muttered darkly as yet another overly-coiffed, hand-waving meringue with an idiot grin passed by on the arm of her tightly-trousered, tanned and toothsome beau. Was that what John expected of a relationship, was that how he saw each of them, deep down in his subconscious? She almost shuddered at the thought.

After standing to watch the parade for a few more minutes, they made their way, John carrying D'Argo, along a winding path, which led under what appeared to Aeryn to be some sort of ancient fortification. As they made their way into an exceptionally dark cavern, by the standards of the park, Aeryn suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. With one hand, she reached swiftly into her shoulder bag to pull out some small, hand-sized object, which she moved to hold up in front of her chest. Her other hand pulled on John's arm with surprising strength as she forced him and Deke behind her.

John almost instantly realised the basis of her misunderstanding.

"It's OK, Aeryn," he struggled not to laugh. Luckily for him, he rightly reckoned that she wasn't the type to tolerate being made fun of. "It's just a model, it's not real." He explained, pointing towards the growling, glowing dragon, which was nesting deeper inside the cave. The dragon's red eyes, smoking nostrils and slowly moving head presented quite a daunting sight even if you knew it to be fake. Aeryn slowly relaxed and put away whatever it was she was holding. John was pretty certain he didn't really want to know what it was in her hand and was grateful that the dark would have hidden it from any other visitors as well as it had from him. He suspected that it was the gun that she had pulled on Olivia earlier that afternoon. It made him wonder what sort of life she lived if she was so ready to pull out a gun in such harmless situations. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know.

He took her arm and gently led her further inside and past the animated model dragon. Although she still seemed more than a little tense, he was pleased to note that she did not resist. It was just another of those subtle differences between their worlds, he thought: Where she came from, she'd probably never met an animatronic puppet before.

"What is it? Are… were these creatures common on your world?" she hissed urgently into his ear. She did not recall hearing anything about them on her previous visit, so maybe these creatures, who appeared to be some sort of much larger version of a Scarran, were either uncommon or extinct?

"Nah, it's just another fairy story," John replied casually, leading her on past it until they emerged into the sunlight. However, when he turned to look at Aeryn he could see that she now seemed to have put up some sort of emotional wall. Her countenance was grim, her bearing stiff and her conversation seemed to have dried up completely. He could not know how shocked she was to learn that humans regarded such nightmarish creatures as suitable entertainment for small children, whereas a harmless rollercoaster was not.

'C'mon, let's go and sit down for a few minutes, take a break?" he suggested, taking her hand. She nodded once, sharply and in silence, which John took as all the sign he needed to lead her off elsewhere. Soon they were sitting outside one of the many eateries scattered around the park, John enjoying the pleasant afternoon sun whilst Aeryn stuck to the shade. Deke sat between them, half enjoying the sun. John watched her carefully for the first minute or two until he was confident that she had gotten over whatever had caused her such distress in the dragon cave. Then, when he thought that his attention was the thing that was now causing her the most distress, he had switched to playing with Deke, allowing her time and space to relax further.

"Hey little fella," John brought the infant closer and bounced him on his knee and then played silly games with his hands and the child's nose and ears. Aeryn watched them, not knowing whether to be delighted or heartbroken. The scene sparked so many emotions and memories in her, both good and bad. It reminded her of that unbearable moment, so long ago, on the Royal Planet when she had walked in on John, Katralla and a projection of their child. Now here was John, once again innocently playing with a child. A John, who she reminded herself resolutely, was not her John. A John with all the naivety he had had in those first monens aboard Moya, untouched by torture, the death of friends, her leaving him, and the need for him to kill to survive. This John was playing with their child, and they were all having an enjoyable, happy time. Yet for all of the pleasure that this gave her, he was not her John. Her John, with all his scars, emotional and physical, was out there somewhere, in another reality, without her or their son. He was probably worried half to death.

John caught her expression. She was so hard to read, as she was so stoical, but he was fairly confident that she was battling with some strong and conflicting emotions. "Are you OK?" he asked gently.

"I'm fine," Aeryn replied, pushing the negative thoughts from her mind and trying to pretend to the outside world that they did not exist at all. She nodded and plastered on a confident smile. "This is just all a little strange, that is all."

"You bet it is," snorted John, not unkindly. Strange didn't cover the half of it. It was a nice strange, knowing that there was a woman he could have fallen so deeply for, and she for him, but bitter-sweet, too. He knew that this, for him, could only last a few days. Then she, and the son that she claimed, and he wanted to believe, was theirs would be gone. "Still, got to make the best of it…"

"Yes we do," Aeryn agreed, pushing away the last vestiges of her maudlin thoughts and nodding and smiling more assertively in a final attempt to bury her negative emotions.

"Hey, d'you wanna try some ice cream?" John asked, trying to derail his own ultimately upsetting train of thought, to focus on the good things in the here and now. "I reckon that'd help."

"I'm sure Deke would love some," Aeryn replied with a low rumble. "I know that I would." It was a hot day and she could do with something to cool her down. She was grateful that at least she had accepted Olivia's offer to lend her some clothes for the expedition: The heat would have been truly unbearable for her in her leathers.

John looked up at her and smiled back, full of innocent, but mischievous joy. She had rarely seen him smile quite like that in the last few cycles. "Ice cream it is, then. Any particular flavour?"

Aeryn frowned for a moment, trying to recall and reconcile certain things that John had told her and her experiences on her last visit to Earth. "Wouldn't you recommend something with chocolate in it?" She suggested, having thought it through.

He grinned back, knowingly. "Coming right up…" He said, handing Deke back to her.

As he headed off for the ice creams, Aeryn watched John go with mixed emotions: To what extent was spending time in frivolous activities with John, like this, merely a personal indulgence? On the other hand, to what extent was it furthering her strategy to fix what was wrong in this reality, to give this John both the means and the motivation to fulfil his destiny and also, hopefully and perhaps incidentally, to find the Aeryn in this universe? She was grateful for these few microts without him, to try to clear her mind and think clearly: She had to do what was necessary for her and Deke to return home. Although it might seem like using John and his friends and family, she refused to allow any guilt over her actions to invade her thoughts. It was necessary, they were willing and informed participants and, from what her John had told her, if she managed to set this John towards his destiny, that would be a good thing, too.

She cuddled Deke closer and softly sung him a human song she had learnt from listening to her John comfort him.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word, daddy's going to buy you a mockingbird…"

As Aeryn watched John returning, grinning inanely and laden with frozen sweets, she strengthened her resolve: These apparently frivolous activities could be both pleasurable and a necessary strategy towards achieving more important objectives. These indulgences were acceptable, so long as she made sure that she did not forget to take every opportunity to feed him any information and encouragement that she could which would help lead him to become what he was meant to be.

She beamed a smile up at him as he handed an ice cream to D'Argo, then a second one to her. His faced flushed red and he smiled coyly back before taking a bite from his own.

'~'

John and Aeryn entered the house without calling out in welcome: They did not want to wake D'Argo, who was exhausted by his trip to Disney and had fallen into a deep sleep in the car on the way home. Hearing them come in, Jack looked up from where he was sitting on the sofa, a soda in one hand, some paperwork in the other.

"Hi son, Aeryn," he acknowledged.

"Hi dad. Where's Liv?"

"Uh? Probably still at work. Little 'un looks out for the count. Disneyworld always used to do that to John, too," Aeryn nodded in reply. "Right up until two years ago, in fact…." Jack teased John as Aeryn set Deke, in his car seat, down on the floor. She and John joined Jack on the couches.

"Yeah, thanks dad," John replied. "What's next, the bare-ass baby pictures?" Aeryn blinked a couple of times, not believing how similar some of what was happening or being said was to previous experiences in her reality. She knew John, her John had a saying he used for such things, but apparently it was not in English, and so whenever she had tried to copy the saying, thanks to the translator microbes, it had always led to confusion. The saying was something like 'already shown', but apparently those words did not quite encompass the concept in English.

"No trouble, son." Jack smirked, interrupting her reverie. "Say, why don't you two youngsters head off out this evening, have some more grown-up fun? I'll mind little Deke."

"Oh we couldn't…" Aeryn demurred, not wanting to impose any further.

"Sure you can. It's not like I'd be going anywhere, anyhow," Jack insisted.

'~'

And so it was that, an arn later, Aeryn found herself with John in the lobby of the nearest cinema, assessing the titles of the latest movie offerings.

"Rom com? Scifi? Musical? What's you poison, Aeryn?" John asked, surveying the options on the boards.

"Hmm, well, I'm not sure any of those…"Aeryn's voice trailed off. She did not recognize any of the titles of the movies – it seemed that for some unfathomable reason a whole new set had been made since her last visit. If they were always making new movies, she wondered on what basis humans chose which one to see: Olivia had been the driving force behind choosing the videos, which she had brought back to Moya. Realizing for the first time that humans seemed to be forever making new movies and that there must therefore be hundreds of them, Aeryn was now quite grateful that she had done so. "How do you choose? I have no idea what would be the best thing to see." she asked realising she was in danger of being bad company and needed to make a more positive contribution to the conversation.

"That's OK. It must all be pretty, well, alien to you?" he smiled at her indulgently.

"Well actually…" she almost launched into an enthusiastic description of her Christmas present to her John, and the wide selection of movies, which Olivia had helped her to buy to go with it. Fortunately, she was saved from such a potentially insensitive remark by John's enthusiastic exclamation.

"Hey that's it! I reckon that'll do nicely," he jabbed at one poster, showing the faces of a handsome looking man in a big hat, a woman with long dark hair, and an older man, all superimposed over a variety of action scenes. "Action, adventure, derring-do, maybe a bit of romance if we're lucky… right up your street, I reckon."

"If you say so, John," she smiled. She had to admit, the poster did look intriguing. There was some sort of fight depicted, with ancient, bladed weapons and people riding those beasts of burden… horthes, if her memory served her correctly. "Hid-al-go." She sounded out the letters on the poster, before John caught her hand and gently pulled her towards the brightly-lit, gaudy counters selling tickets and a variety of almost certainly poorly-nutritious food and drink supplements.

"C'mon, next showing's in 20 minutes – just enough time to lay-in supplies!" John urged her on again.

Just a few, deeply confusing, minutes later Aeryn settled back in the seat next to John just as the auditorium lights began to dim. A ridiculously large bucket of popcorn nestled between them and she held a day's worth of liquid intake in her hand. Now maybe I'll pick up some Earth cultural references to confuse John with, she thought. My John, that is. But all such thoughts were soon washed away as the film started and she was swept up in the story.

'~'

Jack had lost all track of time. He had been sitting on the couch with Deke, the pair of them playing with a few old, toy spaceships he had found in the garage. Deke seemed absolutely to adore the game. To Jack's initial surprise, the seemingly quiet, passive baby took the lead when it came to this particular game, letting Jack know quite forcibly when the game was not right. But then, Jack reminded himself, both his parents were pilots. Space ship pilots, no less.

It sounded to Jack as though Deke had named the more exciting looking ship 'Prowler', probably after his mother's ship. Then there was a larger toy he seemed to call 'Oya' and the small, white one, which seemed to have a couple of names which Jack couldn't quite make out, either 'Noddle' or a couple of Aeryn's click-y vocal sounds followed by 'Ren'. 'Prowler' made another fast pass around 'Oya', this time accompanied by a deep, burbling engine sound from outside the house. Jack instantly recognized the distinctive sound as belonging to John's old T-bird. That meant that mom was back. The evening seemed to have just flown by.

Jack looked up from the couch, where he and Deke were playing, in order to peer through the open lounge door to the entrance hall and watch John and Aeryn as they came through the front door. He smiled to see how comfortable they seemed to be in each other's company as they chatted easily about the movie they had just seen whilst hanging up their coats. It was incredible to think that they had known each other for scarcely more than a day.

"Hey, your mother's home," Jack told Deke before switching to address the adults, who were now strolling through into the living room. "D'you two have a nice time?"

"Yeah, dad," John beamed. He had indeed had a nice time. It had been a very long time since he'd enjoyed a date so much, he thought, even though they hadn't done anything particularly special – just a movie and some fast food on the way home. It was the company that had made it special, he mused. Then he realized what he had called their evening in his mind: A date. He wondered what they might do for a second date, maybe something more elaborate, then he blushed slightly at where his thoughts were taking him, but he wasn't able to dwell on those thoughts as Aeryn was now speaking.

"I am sorry. Has he been awake for long? It must have spoiled your plans for the evening."

"Oh, it's no trouble," Jack smiled back, still playing spaceships with Deke, putting her at ease. I got to spend more time with my grandson, he thought. He was reluctant to return him to his mother as he knew he ought. But then Aeryn had not yet asked for him. He knew Aeryn and Deke wouldn't be around on his Earth for long, and he was happy to steal every moment he could with the boy.

"Well, he seems very happy there," Aeryn admitted, squinting at the toys and failing to recognize them. "John, I just want to use the restroom, then we need to get some more work done. That is if you don't mind looking after Deke a little longer?" she asked Jack. His grin told her that that would be no imposition at all.

"Uh, okay," John replied. "Do you want me to fix you a drink or something to eat while you're gone?" He asked as she made for the door.

"Yes, please. A fruit juice would be fine," she replied, before passing through the door and heading upstairs. John turned to Jack and Deke, watching them for a few seconds whilst a suspicion crystallized in his mind.

"Dad, you didn't wake him up as soon as we were out the door did you?" John accused with a thinly-veiled smirk. Jack smiled back but declined to give a verbal reply. He merely picked up the 'Noddle' and flew it once more around the head of a delighted Deke, who whooped with joy to show his appreciation.

Time for bed, dear readers. See you tomorrow ;-)


	3. Day Three

**Day Three:**

'~'

Instead of breakfast at home, John had persuaded Aeryn to get herself and Deke ready quickly so that they had time to visit a diner for breakfast on the way to the base. Aeryn recalled seeing such places on her previous visit to the planet, the mix of gaudy, bright colours and shiny chrome in their décor sticking in her memory, even though she had never gotten to visit one. Maybe she would have if her John hadn't insisted on being such a drannit for their whole visit the previous cycle? She immediately suppressed the thought as unhelpful, focussing on the here and now.

She could tell it was not an elaborate establishment, relative to some places to eat on Earth, but still the differences from what she was used to made it interesting. The venue, the food, the staff, all seemed to be about having a pleasant, comfortable experience. So different from the Peacekeeper refectories to which she had been accustomed for most of her life.

They made their way to a quiet, private part of the diner, well away from the two extraordinarily badly dressed middle aged male customers who were already there, one slightly overweight, white skinned with long, greasy hair, the other dark tall and dark with a curly mop. Their conversation, although friendly enough, was loud and laced with expletives and besides, both John and Aeryn wanted to be able to talk without to raise their voices or risk being overheard.

John watched Aeryn's poorly concealed excitement with glee. He had quickly moved past realizing that she often concealed what she was feeling and thought that he was now getting quite good at reading her. "Well, I gotta say, you're an easy lady to impress," he winked at her as they settled in a booth, Aeryn placing Deke's carry-seat beside her, next to the window on the long, overstuffed shiny red faux-leather bench.

"Oh, I am easy am I?" she replied, fixing John with a challenging expression. She flicked a napkin open with an audible snap and settled it on her lap.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean…" John tried to backtrack, genuinely worried that he had upset her with a clumsy remark. Her stony expression was proving difficult for him to read again.

"It's fine, John, really," Aeryn smiled back at him, resting her hand on his to reassure him. "I was teasing you. But I am going to make you explain the menu to me and help me choose what to order."

John looked down at their hands: Her touch was cool and electrifying at the same time. He didn't dare to move as he wanted the moment to go on for as long as possible. He could almost feel his pulse beating harder, if not faster. Then suddenly, after what could only have been a couple of seconds, Aeryn pulled her hand back and smiled to the waitress, who was now standing beside her, handing her a menu. John had not even noticed the waitress' arrival, so intent had he been on Aeryn. He coughed self consciously as he accepted his own menu from the waitress. As the woman walked off to deal with other customers, several more of who had now entered the diner, Aeryn's low voice broke into his reverie.

"This is a long menu, John. There is a lot here for you to explain. Maybe you will think twice before saying I am easy in future?" She teased. He wasn't sure whether she was just referring to the menu or to the effect that she had on him. Did she know what effect she had on him, he wondered? Then he realized that of course she did. She was married to John Crichton, after all. He realized with a start that she was probably playing games with him and that he was loving it.

John flushed at his thoughts, cleared his throat and peered at his own menu. "Well let's see," he began. "I think maybe something traditional… eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, hash browns….." he reeled off as her right eyebrow slowly raised a fraction of an inch. John was starting to understand how this game was played.

"With all this food you keep insisting I try I think that I probably will not need to eat for a weeken… sorry, week, once I get home," she teased, flicking open her menu and making a show of examining it by tracing her finger down the page.

"Maybe," John conceded. "But Deke needs his breakfast, and seeing as we're here anyway, we might as well take advantage." John opened his own napkin with a flourish, leaning over to place it on Deke's chest. Deke instantly and accidentally pushed it onto the floor with a flailing arm.

"Take advantage?" she questioned. "Of who?" she added, taking a fresh napkin around Deke. John bit his bottom lip, watching them and mulling over his next words.

"So, only one egg, one piece of bacon, and so on for you then?" he asked Aeryn with a quirky smile. "And a full special each for me and the boy?"

"I think you need to keep your expectations realistic, John," Aeryn replied with mock-sternness, betrayed by the merest hint of a smile.

'~'

Laura Knox looked at her watch and wondered, not for the first time this week, what was keeping John and Aeryn this morning. Except she knew: It was John, of course. He seemed intent on spending every waking moment with their visitor, whether that might be work-related or not. Out of hours he had pretty much monopolised her company. Not that Laura really minded, as she saw plenty of Aeryn during the long hours they were working together and welcomed the opportunities to debrief, or even to bitch and gossip, in private with Doug.

Doug was in hog heaven, of course. He had what appeared to be a real alien spaceship to play with. Even if it wasn't alien, the technology was so different, arguably so advanced, relative to their own that it scarcely mattered. And of course, he was getting a crash course in astrophysics and all the other nerdy space-things which got him so fired up to go with it. Once Doug had established that Aeryn, despite her claims to being an alien, behaved like a normal, if somewhat socially inept, serious and private geek, he had lapsed into treating her almost like any other female colleague. Laura was more than happy that her husband's head didn't seem to have been turned by their potentially glamorous visitor, so had not pressed for them to, for instance, spend more evenings with Aeryn and John. If John wanted to monopolise Aeryn's down-time, Laura was not going to argue about it.

It was John who worried her most. Doug's best friend had a habit of falling for the wrong women and it looked, to Laura, as though he'd done it again. She'd watched with growing unease as John had shown sign after sign of being smitten with Aeryn. It was not that Laura did not like Aeryn, far from it. She was so level headed, so serious and, she guessed from little hints that she had picked up on, so loyal it made a nice change. Indeed, according to Aeryn's story, she was actually married to another version of John. Although that detail confirmed Laura's thoughts that Aeryn was so right for John, it was also the one teeny fly in the ointment. In a few days time, if everything went to plan, Aeryn would be flying out of here, back to her own home. At this rate, she would be leaving a heartbroken John behind.

Laura felt a pang of resentment and jealousy at that thought. The last thing she wanted was John mooching around over yet another lost love. He'd be constantly imposing himself on her and Doug, to say nothing of yet another lost weekend if he dragged Doug away somewhere to drown his sorrows. She knew she should not get involved: It was none of her business, and they had work to do which could be compromised if she tried to intervene. She would just have to hope that John would behave like a big boy and that he was careful about how hard he fell for Aeryn.

She looked at her watch again: Nearly half an hour late. Damn. She had other things to do than wait around here all day for them. Standing, she made her way outside. She'd go and see whether the meteorology reports they'd requested were ready yet.

'~'

Laura came back into the hangar just as DK and John were helping Aeryn to fix the final bodywork panels back in place on the prowler. They still bore the scorch-marks of the Kkore attack, but Aeryn assured them that the panels were otherwise perfectly serviceable.

"All done?" Laura asked the backs of the three busy mechanics.

"Mm, nearly," Aeryn replied without looking over her shoulder.

"Just gotta finish up getting this back in place," John confirmed, turning his head to smile at Laura.

"Good," Laura responded, drawing closer.

"Have you got the meteorology reports, Laura?" DK asked, breaking away from the prowler to turn to his wife, as his hands were now no longer required to hold up the metalwork.

"Yup," Laura said, waving a sheaf of papers in front of her. "It looks like tomorrow afternoon is going to be your best shot for a solar flare, Aeryn."

"Excellent!" Aeryn replied, deciding not to further reinforce her enthusiasm to get going when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the glum expression, which had just descended upon John's features, accompanied by a slight slump to his shoulders. This was getting quite difficult for all of them. Aeryn was growing increasingly aware that the longer it went on, the longer she stayed, the harder it would be for John and his family when she left. She would be going back to her John, which was something for her to look forwards to, whereas this John could only look forward to seeing her leave as the end of their time together approached. He would surely know that he would never see her again. Whilst she hated to contemplate the thought of leaving a John Crichton once again, she knew that it had to be.

Aeryn returned to her work, trying to put such thoughts out of her mind before they distracted and upset her further. How many times would John Crichton frell up her life, and how many times would she have to leave him? It was not a comforting thought.

'~'

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…. that's just not possible…..!"John spluttered in protest, almost slamming down his coffee mug on the workbench. Despite his apparent excitement, he took great care not to risk slopping any beverage over his open laptop, with all the priceless information it now contained. Aeryn turned her head the rest of the way to look straight at him, her expression serious.

"It is not only possible, it is the only way I know that a hetch drive can function," she insisted.

"Well, you're going to have to give me a little more to go on…" he frowned, petulantly slapping the computer screen with the backs of his fingers. "This is just…"

"Remember John, you are the scientist. I am just a pilot. A simple soldier. But I am sure that you can figure it out," she replied calmly. "You have before," she added, not entirely truthfully, but trying to boost his self-confidence. If he believed he could work it out, then maybe he could.

He puffed and gesticulated for a moment before calming down. "OK, OK, let's go over it one more time. From the top and with feeling," she frowned in partial incomprehension at his remarks: Trust John Crichton always to come out with yet another Earthism to catch her out.

About an hour and three quarters later, Aeryn had been through the principles of the hetch drive twice more to the limits of her knowledge, and both she and her small audience were starting to get tired and frustrated. Sensing the rising tensions, Laura had recently made an excuse about other work and dragged DK away. John couldn't imagine what could be more important than such a potentially ground-breaking propulsion system, but he doubted that they would be hurrying back.

"It's getting late: I'm not sure how much more constructive work we're gonna get done here today," John said, trying to move the prevailing mood a little sideways onto safer territory.

"I agree," Aeryn responded with a sharp nod. The last few hours had certainly been trying her patience, and these days she would happily admit that she wasn't the sort of woman who had much patience to try in the first place. She and John had been on the edge of a full-blown argument for about the last half arn. Of course, these days, she knew that that was hardly an unusual state for them to be in, but, for this John, it was a novel and probably worrying state of affairs. She almost laughed at the thought of how normal it was for her and John to disagree like this and how easily and quickly, if only during the last cycle, that they made up. That thought led her to blush slightly at the thought of their favourite method of making up.

"So, looks like we've have got the evening free," John rambled on across her thoughts, agreeing with her suggestion that they should stop work. "How about I ask dad and Livvy to babysit this evening and I'll take you somewhere really special?"

"Babysit? But won't it hurt Deke if they sit on him?" She stared back at him, maintaining a curious, concerned expression for a few microts before giggling. "Oh, your face, John!" She punched him gently on the arm. "Yes, of course, that would be very nice."

John smiled back at that, wincing and rubbing his arm as though she might have actually hurt him. That was one of the things she loved about their relationship, that they could be angry with each other one microt and then, a few microts later, it could all be settled. She knew things hadn't always been exactly like that, but it did not matter to her. As far as she was concerned the normal state of affairs between them was for them to forgive each other and to draw back together, and that was what mattered the most to her.

'~'

Jack had spent a very pleasant afternoon with Deke. When he had visited the hangar earlier in the day he had sensed the tensions amongst the adults. He had realized that Aeryn's time and energy were torn between finishing work on the prowler, acting as tutor to John, DK and Laura and looking after Deke. The best thing he could do would be to reduce the number of things she had to deal with. If, in the process, he got to spend time with Deke, then all the better: Aeryn had seemed relieved when he suggested she take him off her hands for a few hours.

There were limits to what he could do with Deke, of course. Games of football or baseball were both out of the question for such a small toddler, and might not have been a good idea for an old man, either. In the end they had swung by a public park, spending a good chunk of the afternoon playing on the swings and roundabouts. Jack had been impressed by how well developed the child seemed to be for his age. Most of all, though, he had noticed how much Deke loved anything which involved speed, movement and maybe a frisson of danger. Not that a toddler understood danger, of course, Jack had to remind himself.

As the afternoon drew on, he had taken Deke home for an ice cream, which the boy had devoured almost as though he'd never tasted one before. Jack was a little sad to realize that, indeed, there was unlikely to be anything quite like ice cream where he lived. Jack had no idea that Deke fondly remembered his ice cream experience from his trip to Disney and was in a state of frenzied anticipation once he realized he was going to get another one.

Ice creams finished, they moved outside to enjoy the sun and began playing with the spaceship toys in the back yard. Jack lost all track of time, and they were still playing when John and Aeryn eventually returned from the base.

'~'

Aeryn stood at the end of her bed and stared in confusion at the clothes and shoes that Olivia had told her that she should wear that evening. When Olivia had heard the name of the restaurant that John had booked, she had seemed impressed for some reason. Olivia had then insisted that neither Aeryn's own leathers nor the casual clothes, which the sebacean had borrowed from the human over the last couple of days, would be suitable. Aeryn had protested that she was sure that she would be fine as she was, but then John and Jack had backed Olivia up.

Olivia had gone upstairs, and returned a minute or two later with a scrap of fabric that she had termed a little black dress and the most bizarre and impractical looking footwear that Aeryn had ever seen. Well, the most impractical she had seen since her last visit to earth. Aeryn had looked at the small piece of fabric and mentally agreed that, although the dress had the redeeming feature of being black, it was indeed very little. At that unsettling thought Aeryn had protested again that she would surely be fine wearing her everyday clothes, but the humans had insisted that she would not. In the end she had, against her better judgement, agreed to try on the outfit Olivia had selected for her. It all seemed a lot of unnecessary trouble and ritual to go to just for third meal, though. After all, people had just been wearing their ordinary clothes everywhere else that she had eaten, including the place they had briefly stopped off at on their way back from the cinema the night before.

Aeryn picked up the dress and held it at arms length, sizing up her enemy: It looked too small for her to squeeze into, although Olivia had reassured her that it would stretch. It would have to. Indeed, that was probably the only way that it could possibly fit either of them. She had in fact worn items a little like this dress a couple of times on her previous visit to Earth. One barely remembered occasion, on account of her remarkable ensuing hangover, was a very drunken night out that she had been dragged along to by Olivia. Another time had been when she had been on a short goodwill tour to some other countries and Chiana had somehow persuaded to keep her company on one of the Nebari's evening escapades. That had led to Aeryn being photographed dancing with another man and John subsequently getting rather jealous. Until he'd blanked her out with the aid of his frelling lakka, of course. She pushed that particular unhappy memory away.

It seemed to Aeryn that wearing such frelling impractical items on evening socialising excursions seemed to be something of a custom amongst human females. She sighed, resignedly. She was going to have to give it a try. Then, when she'd proved that the dress did not fit or that it made her look like a tralk or just frelling ridiculous, she would be able to wear something more sensible for the evening meal without further comment from the humans downstairs.

Ten minutes later, Aeryn paused and sat at the bottom of the stairs in order to put on the shoes, or were they instruments of torture, which Olivia had insisted that she should wear with the dress. Having squeezed her feet into the bizarrely impractical and undoubtedly uncomfortable objects, she pushed open the door and tottered unsteadily into the living room.

As she entered the room, all eyes turned to appraise her. Jack and John seemed to whistle appreciatively, although Olivia seemed to gasp slightly, confirming Aeryn's preconception that she probably looked a like an outrageous tralk. Deke gurgled and shrieked with laughter: Despite her embarrassment, Aeryn felt a twinge of pride at the thought that her son had inherited her own good judgement and directness.

"I told you it doesn't work. I look ridiculous, I'll get changed," Aeryn insisted, deciding that Deke had the right idea.

"Oh, honey, it so works!" Olivia responded with a clap, causing Aeryn to pause and reconsider her evasion tactics. "And it never looked that good on me – you should keep it!" Olivia beamed.

"But these shoes: I can hardly walk in them. I should go change into my boots," Aeryn tried a different approach. Surely they couldn't object to that, after all, no one could be expected to walk, far less run, in such bizarre footwear?

"The shoes are perfect, you just need to get used to them is all," Olivia attempted to reassure her. "Trust me. Your boots just wouldn't go."

"Go?" Aeryn questioned, her brow furrowing with a frown of incomprehension.

"Match. Look right," Olivia supplied.

"Oh, I don't know…" John suggested hopefully. In his mind's eye he could quite picture Aeryn in the black dress and her long boots. His face reddened.

"No!" Olivia maintained, fixing her brother with a beady eye.

"You look gorgeous as you are," John replied, deciding it was probably safest to agree with his sister after all.

"A sight for sore eyes," Jack put in, supported his offsprings' assessments and jiggling Deke on his knee. The youngster appeared fascinated by seeing his mother dressed as he had never seen her before. He held out both hands towards her, drooled a little and cackled maniacally. John, her John, would have been proud, Aeryn

mused.

"See?" Olivia continued. "Anyway, don't worry. You won't have to walk far in the shoes. Now, let's head back upstairs, I'll do your hair and all for you," she finished, taking the bemused former Peacekeeper commando by the hand and leading her back through the door to introduce her to yet more peculiar human rituals.

'~'

Aeryn had to agree that the triumvirate of Crichtons had been right in one way: She would have looked very out of place at the restaurant dressed either in Olivia's everyday clothes or in her own leathers. Everything about the venue seemed to be opulent and excessive, and every female present seemed to be dressed in a similarly extremely impractical manner. Most of the outfits on display (or was it the clothes' occupants that were on display?) made Aeryn's look restrained or prudish in comparison. The mens' clothing seemed a little more sensible, she noted, unhappily remembering that she had noticed on her previous visit how unequal human society could be in such matters. She suppressed her anger, knowing that it would not be helpful under the circumstances. However, one other thing still greatly concerned Aeryn. She reached across and pushed John's menu down towards the table so that she could lean in and whisper more secretively.

"John, people keep staring at me. What is wrong?" she hissed, her eyes darting furtively around, scanning for threats, worried by what all the attention might mean. "Should we run for it?"

John licked his lips and grinned. "The guys are staring because you're the most gorgeous looking woman here…. And the women are staring because… well, I wouldn't worry about it," he finished with a smirk. "Nothing for you to worry about at all."

Aeryn was not entirely convinced by his explanation, but decided that she ought to let it ride. John really didn't seem concerned by all the attention that she seemed to be getting. Besides, she wasn't sensing that anyone was acting in a way which was actually threatening, but she resolved to keep alert for danger, just in case. If she got really desperate, one of her shoes or even some of the items on the table could serve as a quite effective weapon, she decided. The shoes seemed to be no use as anything much except weapons. Maybe that was the explanation for them, she wondered?

At that moment, the waiter arrived, offering John and Aeryn their menus with a curt "Ma'am. Sir," before proffering the wine list to John and asking "Would you care for an aperitif before ordering?" However, without even going through the largely pointless exercise of looking at the menu, Aeryn had already decided what she wanted to eat. She had seen a nearby diner being brought a red, armoured critter, which she recognized as a lobster. Lobster was an Earth delicacy that she had fond memories of trying in company with her John and Jack on her previous visit to Earth. The eating-house that they had been to on that occasion had been hundreds of metras away and it had thankfully been the sort of place that her own leathers had been acceptable attire. She had enjoyed that evening and the temporary thaw it had marked in John's behaviour towards her. She was keen to see what this restaurant would make of the dish, which was linked with such mixed memories for her.

An entrée, a lobster and a few glasses of the surprisingly potent human intoxicant called wine later, Aeryn found that her resolve to maintain a composed, alert detachment was slipping somewhat. She was still eyeing the waiter warily, but only because she didn't entirely trust him. With his aloof manner and smart, black outfit he reminded her of a PeaceKeeper, whilst he couldn't seem to leave her and John alone to talk in private: He always seemed to be hovering, asking if everything was alright with their meals, topping up her wine glass without even asking her and generally making a frelling nuisance of himself.

"Enjoying yourself yet?" John asked jokingly, well aware that Aeryn had only slowly relaxed and still seemed quite on edge. He could not grasp what was making her so nervous, but he found her natural reserve and her quirky reactions to everything that was novel to her to be charmingly cute nonetheless.

"Hmm, I must admit, I am enjoying this more than I thought I would," she conceded, toying with the wine glass and stifling a burp.

"Good to hear it. I'd hate to think all this effort was going unappreciated," he batted back, catching her eye and teasing her with a wink.

"John, I'd like to thank you for the last few days. It's been very… special… to me," she replied earnestly, remaining so adorably serious despite the relaxing and intoxicating effects of the alcohol.

"Pleasure's all mine."

"Over the cycles… the years... you often promised to show me your world. But when we got here, last year. Well, things just didn't work out like that." The wine was definitely loosening her tongue.

"What happened? Did the government….?" John was suddenly concerned.

"No, nothing like that." She shook her head vigorously. "You and I… well, we had not been getting on very well." John was genuinely surprised. He knew they could argue – he had had a hint of that earlier in the day, when they had been working on the concept of the hetch drive. It must have been quite some argument that the other John had had with Aeryn to overshadow their whole visit to Earth. However, it was clear that whatever that argument had been about, Aeryn and the other John had worked through it. Although it hurt him slightly to realise that he could have such a serious disagreement with her, he was also pleased to know that they had been able to work things out.

"I'm sorry…" he responded, not sure what else to say and not wanting to pry.

"You shouldn't be," she replied. Both she and John had acted badly. But this John had done nothing wrong. But then, if it had been him there with her in the Uncharted Territories, then he would have acted exactly the same, of course. "Although actually, maybe you should, seeing as you are him…." She shrugged her shoulders and prodded at her dessert with a fork as though she was trying to incapacitate it.

"I dunno if that's fair," John protested gently.

"John, you have to understand… my John, and you, the only difference is different things have happened to you. Some of those experiences may have changed you and changed him, but you are still both John Crichton."

He frowned and nodded, trying to understand and trying to work out why she was looking increasingly flustered and upset. It was not like the calm, collected, controlled Aeryn he had grown to know over the last few days. Alcohol definitely helped strip away her reserve. "Look, John, could we talk about something else please. Talking about two Crichtons like this is all a little upsetting for me." Aeryn said, as though deliberately to contradict his thoughts.

"Of course," he conceded, wondering what the hell could lie behind those remarks. Half of him wanted to know, but the better half wanted to grant her request and allow the conversation to go somewhere less distressing for her. "How's your meal?"

"It's very different," she forced a smile back, trying to drive a change in her own mood.

"Different? Is that all?" he arched an eyebrow.

"Not the right word…" she admitted. "I mean, I grew up in a barracks. The food was normally very basic, functional. And then, on Moya, we often haven't had much to eat. This is… well, it's wonderful."

"Glad you like it…" he beamed back. "Here, you should try some of this," he added, lifting a forkful of his own dessert across the table towards her. She took the offered morsel and emitted a little groan of pleasure at the taste and texture. John thought that he had never witnessed anything quite so innocent yet erotic in his life.

"You're killing me here Aeryn," he joked, flirting in response to her reaction to the dessert. The words had scarcely left his mouth before Aeryn turned pale, her stony, shocked expression summed up by her wide, scared-looking eyes and the small O of her open mouth. Her body had gone rigid, her knuckles white as she clutched at her fork. John was horrified that he had managed to upset her so badly without even realising the how or why. "What's wrong Aeryn…?" he asked urgently.

"I'm fine John, really, I'm fine," she answered, forcing the words out and acting as though nothing had happened. She knew she was being quite snappy and unpredictable with him and that he didn't deserve it, but she couldn't help it. The alcohol seemed to be affecting her quite badly, so she presumed. She forced a smile and leaned across, covering his hand with hers and squeezing it sympathetically before forcing out a smile. "Really, it's nothing. So, what comes after this," she jabbed at her dessert with her fork, trying to move the conversation on.

"Well, we might have cheese, some coffee," he caught her frown at that suggestion. In the few days he had known her, John had learned that Aeryn did not like coffee. "Or tea, if you like," he added for her benefit. "And we talk."

"I should have realized," she replied with a sly smile. "This whole frelling stupid restaurant ritual is all just a way of getting a jirl relaxed so you can talk about emotions and all of that dren, isn't it?" she babbled. Humans, only ever after one thing: They were so transparent!

"You know sometimes, Aeryn," he frowned, "I don't understand half of what you're saying."

She considered that for a moment. At last, with the aid of alcohol, his lack of experience of UT slang and his lack of translator microbes Crichton was finding her conversation as incomprehensible as she had often found his. She chuckled and winked at him. "Finally! Now you know how I've felt listening to you for the last five cycles!" he grinned back at her, not knowing quite what to say to that.

After dinner, John and Aeryn walked slowly side by side, setting out along the waterfront, which ran past the restaurant. The air was still and pleasantly warm, the sky clear. It was too inviting an evening not to do so and besides, Aeryn thought she could benefit from walking off some of the feast before heading home to bed.

The stars and moon sparkled off the nearly-still water to their left and, once they had left the restaurant a hundred motras behind, almost the only sound was that of the water lapping gently against the promenade wall. Although Aeryn was still not exactly comfortable walking in her shoes, she was coping, just about, and John seemed eager to help to steady her whenever she faltered. As they walked on, a brightly-lit ship came into sight, rounding a bend in front of them, and John and Aeryn paused to watch it pass. The sounds of a party aboard lilted across to them. Aeryn shivered slightly in the cool of the evening. Although she preferred her environment to be cool, the flimsy dress, which barely covered her body far less her shoulders or limbs, provided little or no insulation now that the sun had gone.

"Someone's having a nice time," John commented, noticing her shiver and laying his jacket across her shoulders. He didn't retrieve his arm when he had done so, but gently laid it on her upper arm furthest from him and gently pulled her a little closer.

"Mmhmm," Aeryn confirmed from low in her throat. The wine, the feeling of warm well-being from the rich food and the view all conspired to lower her guard. Indeed, the whole situation was what John might term romantic.

John leaned his head in closer, close enough to smell her spice-scented hair, to feel a few stray locks brushing against his face. She turned her head towards his and he could feel her breath blowing across his cheek and then, as he too turned his head towards hers, brushing his lips. What light there was sparkled off the water and reflected in her gaze. The seemingly endless depths of those grey eyes seemed to hold both a secret and a smile as they looked back, deep into his own. Her lips seemed to part slightly, although no sound came. He could have sworn he could hear her heart beating faster. He knew that his was. He tentatively raised his free hand towards her face, meaning to stroke her cheek.

"Aeryn…." He breathed hopefully.

Abruptly she pulled away, pirouetting slightly to escape his arm around her shoulder and leaving him frustrated and embarrassed. He didn't really need any explanation as to why she had broken the moment, though. He felt ashamed. Had he really tried to seduce another man's wife? It would seem so. Even though that other man was him, it just wasn't right. After a few seconds his frustration subsided and he felt almost grateful, and oddly pleased, that she had had the self control to break the spell of the moment.

"No, John, it's not right. You're just like him I mean - you are him, but…." She cursed herself for allowing this to happen. "Frell!" she hissed. She wasn't used to wine: She must have drunk too much, and it had clouded her judgement. Part of her had always wanted him to be interested enough in her to try to find his own Aeryn Sun, but she had never intended this to happen, she told herself. She had come so close to giving in to the moment, too. Even though they had done nothing, and she didn't share some of what she still sometimes regarded as John's hang-ups about sex, it still felt like a betrayal of her own John, because she knew that her own John would have felt betrayed.

"No, I'm me," John replied evenly. What he hadn't expected was for Aeryn to turn away at his remark, muttering a sebacean curse under her breath and trying to cover the damn of tears which seemed to be straining to be released. "Aeryn, what is it?" John asked, stepping closer and laying a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

She sucked back her phlegm, buried her sudden urge to emote like a frelling human and took another step away, his hand dropping off her shoulder as a consequence. She needed to get a more Peacekeeper-like grip on her feelings if she was going to get through this without embarrassing herself further.

"Bad memories," she replied quietly, her voice cracking even as she began reasserting her icy self-control. John closed the gap between them, stepping closer, in order to try to comfort her again. He placed his hand back on her shoulder but once again she shook it off, leaving no doubt in his mind this time that she did not want the contact.

"Look, it is not you fault," she turned slightly towards him and tried to explain, wiping away a tear with the back of her hand. "Actually, come to think of it, maybe it is. One way or another." She added, trying to laugh even though her voice was close to breaking. In addition to their inappropriate actions, the words they had exchanged had cut her too deeply, reminding her of another time when there had been two John Crichtons in her life, and how badly that had all turned out. "You are like a plague, John Crichton. Where ever I go, there you are, ruining my life."

"I'm sorry, honey," John tried to apologize, not knowing entirely what for, as for Aeryn this all seemed to be about something way beyond the kiss-that-had-never-been just now. He couldn't believe that his cool-as-a-cucumber companion would get so upset over a man simply trying to kiss her, after all.

"I will be fine, I just need a few microts that's all…" she explained, walking towards the handrail at the edge of the promenade and leaning on it with both hands. She sighed deeply, blowing the breath out and sucking it in with some force. John followed, mirroring her posture at the railing, but at a safe, non-threatening distance.

"I'm sorry Aeryn, I didn't mean to… I shouldn't have…"

"Yes you did," she snorted still staring ahead. "And it's not a problem. You are interested in me, I am interested in you. We always have been." He studied her profile carefully, trying to guess what would come next. "It's fine, John, really. I understand."

"You sure you're not upset?" he asked. She turned fully to face him and smiled, but did not reach out or move closer for now.

"Upset? Yes, but not about what you seem to think. And please do not ask." He looked at her carefully for a few moments and nodded. She smiled back. "I have had a wonderful time, John, and you have shown me so much of your world. I will always treasure these moments we have had."

John breathed a sigh of relief, tempered with the knowledge that these might be some of their last treasured moments together. He wouldn't want his memories of this evening to have an unhappy ending. Aeryn looked back out across the water revelling in the view. But what on Earth had gotten her so upset? She didn't seem willing to discuss it, so he guessed it would have to remain a mystery to him.

"You know, it really is very beautiful," she whispered wistfully. Then she snapped out of her private moment, all business-like again. "Come on, we should be getting back," she said, holding out her hand towards him, inviting him to take it. He didn't need to be asked twice.

'~'

Sigh. Nearly there now.


	4. Day Four

**Day Four:**

**'~'**

Aeryn was growing a little concerned about the amount of food which Jack and Olivia seemed intent on feeding D'Argo for breakfast. However, as Aeryn had guessed that they were both just trying to make the most of what was likely to be their last hour or two with Deke, she let it pass without comment. She actually felt quite sorry for them: If things went to plan today, they would never see their young relative again. However, when Jack went to get yet another bowl of food for her son, Aeryn felt that she had to say something.

"Jack, please, no more," she pleaded. Jack frowned back at her. "I do not want him getting space-sick later today," she explained. Jack nodded in understanding. He was an ex-pilot and astronaut himself, after all, and even his limited imagination had no trouble with visualising how undesirable it would be for the child to be sick in the confined cockpit of the prowler, especially once they were weightless. Olivia looked a little crestfallen, though, but she cheered up at Aeryn's next words. "Although could the two of you look after him for me while I go and pack our things, please?"

"Of course," Jack replied with the broadest of grins.

"We'd love to," Olivia added. Aeryn stood and was already moving to the door as Olivia called after her. "And don't forget to pack that dress and the shoes. If not for you, for your John."

"I know the dress stretches, but they would never fit him," Aeryn tossed back with a smirk and a shake of her head before making for the stairs. Crazy humans, she snorted to herself.

'~'

"I think that is everything," Aeryn commented, placing her now overstuffed flight bag by the front door, itching to get on her way. Of the three humans present, Olivia seemed to Aeryn to be the most upset over the imminent departure of her and Deke, but then John and Jack would be taking them to the base, so it wasn't quite the final goodbye yet for the two men. It was then that Olivia surprised Aeryn by pulling out what seemed to be a camera.

"Honey, could we just get some last pictures? For the family album?" Olivia begged. Aeryn frowned, taking photographs being such a thoroughly alien behaviour to her, so far out of her normal terms of reference. Even her previous visits to versions of Earth had not made it much more comprehensible to her.

Their whole visit this time was so hard for these Crichtons to take in, really, thought Aeryn. This was almost the visit to Earth that Aeryn would have loved to have had, instead of the one she had actually had the year before: No government or media imposing and intruding their agendas upon them; John at his charming best, undamaged by the nightmares, trials and disappointments of the last few cycles, showing her his world. This time she had been able to share with Jack and Olivia that she and John were together, rather than have them wondering why they were not. Yet she knew at heart, of course, that it was not the John, Jack and Olivia that she had known that she was sharing all of these experiences with. She also knew that it must have been even harder for the three humans: She was John's wife, but she wasn't at the same time. Maybe the Crichtons could cope with that, rationalize her as just another girlfriend, albeit one who he had only known for a few days. But D'Argo surely complicated matters. He was John's son, a real child that the humans had never before even thought of, by a woman that they had never before known. Worse, in a few arns he would be gone from their lives, probably for ever.

A few last photographs, to keep the memory of their visit and the possibility of their existence alive in the monens and cycles to come, seemed such a small thing to ask.

"Of course," Aeryn replied with a solemn nod.

Soon Deke was being passed around, being photographed with his human relatives, posing in seemingly every permutation imaginable. They also seemed to want some photographs with Aeryn. The whole exercise remained a strange human ritual from Aeryn's perspective, but she was inwardly pleased that it was something that Deke seemed to take to with ease. He never complained once, although Aeryn had to struggle to maintain her own patience as time dragged on.

Once sufficient photographs had been taken to satisfy the humans' needs, Olivia accompanied them out to the car. It was obvious even to Aeryn that, despite the unfortunate tickling misunderstanding, Olivia was nearly in tears at the thought of their imminent departure. When Aeryn's bag had finally been stowed in the trunk, Olivia could control herself no longer and pulled Aeryn into an unexpectedly fierce hug. It was one of those rare moments when Aeryn abandoned her usual reservations about public displays of affection, returning the hug as intensely as she dared without risk of hurting the fragile human woman who meant so much to her.

"You look after my nephew and my brother. My other brother," Olivia sniffed, stepping back and clutching Aeryn by her shoulders. "I wish we could have had more time," she finished, releasing Aeryn. But Olivia understood perhaps as well as any of them that the solar flares which would hopefully provide Aeryn with her route home would not wait. You didn't need to be an astronaut to understand the unrelenting passage of time. However, only Aeryn truly understood the extent to which the universe could be a harsh and unrelenting timekeeper.

"I promise…" was all Aeryn could reply to Olivia, before she turned and climbed into the vehicle.

'~'

Aeryn watched the unfamiliar streets go by the window, struggling to stay focussed on what she had to do and what she hoped would await her at the end of it: A return to Moya and to her John. The John Crichton with her now, in the car, had fallen into a morose silence since the journey had begun, drumming his fingers on the door trim in time to the music which was playing quietly over the radio. It all reminded Aeryn of another car journey with John, Jack and Olivia the year before, on their way to an airport. John had been moody on that journey, too, although much of that was down to lakka and the music which Olivia had played, the lyrics of which had caused John to fly into a rage when Olivia would not turn it off.

She and John had moved on a long way in their relationship since that unhappy and ill-fated trip to Earth. They had resolved their differences, he had stopped using the lakka, and they had had a son together to name but three things. In some ways it was hard to remember now just how betrayed and alone she had sometimes felt back then. She was fairly sure that she did not want to recall the emptiness and hopelessness that she had sometimes experienced in those days even if she could. She looked down at Deke, smiling and gurgling up at her, and that gave her all the reason and distraction she needed to lift her mood.

A sudden change in the vehicle's direction as it traversed a junction caused Aeryn to look up, out of the window. Through a veil of trees and other vegetation she caught a fleeting glimpse of a childrens' playground, not knowing that it was the one Jack had taken Deke to the previous afternoon. She frowned, trying to recall if it was the very same playground where, monens earlier and a lifetime ago, she had spent a quarter arn, alone in the rain, having absented herself from the government mansion? Back then she had been wondering if John would ever come back to her and, if not, whether she could raise their then unborn child alone. If, today, she could not make it back to her John, might she now have to raise Deke alone, as she had then feared?

The two unhappy memories of her previous visit to Earth, especially coming so close on each other, reminded her of all the good things that she had now that she did not have the cycle before, and of all that she could so easily have lost. It also made her think once again of what this John was about to lose. Although Aeryn felt sorry for this version of her John, she had done all that she could to show him how much more that he could become. She clenched her jaw and redoubled her resolve to get herself and her son safely back to their own John, to their life and, despite the Kkore, to all of the good things that she now had back on Moya with him. She had fought so hard and endured so much to get from where she had been last cycle to get to where she wanted to be. Where she wanted to be was not here on Earth, despite all of its attractions, of that she was utterly sure. Where she wanted to be was back home, her home. Moya.

'~'

The trip to the base and then onwards to the hanger passed without incident. Remarkably so, Aeryn couldn't help but think. It was so unlike her life for nothing to go horribly wrong for such an extended period of time. It made her feel slightly nervous. She almost longed for, say, a challenge from the Earth authorities, just so she could get on with dealing with it instead of worrying about when it might occur.

After a busy half-arn spent getting the prowler back outside, they settled down to a final round of goodbyes and good advice before Laura, DK and then finally Jack, absented themselves and made their way back out of earshot.

John helped Aeryn to stow her flight bag in the prowler and then to secure Deke's new seat behind the pilot's seat. Aeryn was already kneeling in the pilot's seat from securing the car seat, whilst John stood outside the prowler on a short ladder. Aeryn had to admit to herself that the child's car seat, one of her handful of acquisitions during her brief sojourn on this alternate Earth, was a far more secure arrangement than the padded fabric sling, which she had been using to hold Deke when she had landed only a few days ago.

John gave Deke a long, final hug before, sniffing back the threat of a tear, he handed him over to Aeryn for her to secure in the prowler. Aeryn took her time, knowing that John would want the opportunity free of her attention to re-compose himself. Finally she turned back to see that John was once again presenting his usual, confident front to the universe.

Once they had finished dealing with Deke both seemed unsure as to what should happen afterwards. There was a long pause while each of them struggled to think of what to say or do next.

"That's it, then. Looks like you're about ready to hit the road," John commented, using bravado and idle chatter to paste over his breaking heart. Aeryn twisted in the seat to face him. She could see the turmoil he was in. After all, she had had five cycles and several poignant moments of separation to learn how to read him.

"All you've done for us. You didn't have to. Why?" She breathed. She didn't need to ask the rest, to put into words the unspoken details behind that simple question: She was a stranger to him. Why would he risk everything to help her and D'Argo escape from Earth? She had no illusions as to what might be at stake for him: His career, maybe his freedom, or even his life. Even once they were no longer strangers, to do all that he had done to help her could only make it more certain that he would lose both her and Deke than had he refused to help them at all. She knew her John, though: In her heart, she did not really have to ask.

John shrugged and avoided her gaze, but reached out and covered her hand where it rested on the edge of the Prowler's cockpit. "I always was a sucker for a pretty face and a little kid," he said, trying to make light of everything. They both knew that his explanation was, although not a lie, a fabrication to cover what he really felt and would not say. They both knew that he had fallen for her on that first day in the meeting room and that he would do anything for her.

"When you find your way out there…." Aeryn began earnestly, turning her hand over to catch and hold his in her own.

"Like that's going to happen," John butted in with a humourless laugh. "We don't even go to the moon anymore," he added with a snort. Aeryn waited patiently for him to finish. She knew John, her John. He would do anything it took to find her. She had no doubt that this John would be the same. She had spent the last few days giving him as much knowledge as she could to help him down that path. He had a destiny to fulfil, a war to stop.

"When you find the version of me in your reality," she continued, insistent that she was not going to be side tracked or distracted by his attempts to use humour to cover what he was really feeling. "I might not be a very nice person. No matter who I am, what I'm doing, how hostile I might seem to you at first, remember, I find you… interesting… remember I can be more than what you first see. Remember that. And remember to tell me that I can be more." She emphasized the last few words and paused to make sure that he understood the importance of her instructions. He frowned in incomprehension, but eventually nodded all the same. "It might take time for me to come round, but don't give up hope. Don't give up on me. You once said that I take time," she finished. Her heart ached for him, but it was all she could do for this John. However, then he surprised her, raising his eyes to return her gaze, his mouth quirking into one of his more amiable smiles.

"Keep my eyes on the prize, huh?" he asked, those same bright blue eyes twinkling as he tried to fix this moment, complete with the slight smile she returned him, into his memory to sustain him in the months, perhaps years, which lay ahead. "Come on, you'd better get going," he finished, sparing a sad look down to Deke, where he lay in his seat before looking up again, into her eyes.

He leaned in, his heart in his mouth, and his lips found hers. This time, she did not pull away.

'~'

John and Jack returned to their offices, both keeping a nervous eye and ear open for anything which might suggest that Aeryn might have been detected by the military. They had plotted a long, slow, laborious flight path for her to minimize the chance that her prowler might raise suspicious attention. In addition, Aeryn had reassured them that, should she be discovered and challenged, then her prowler should have no trouble in evading anything that might be sent from Earth to intercept her. She could be in orbit within seconds if necessary. Yet they all knew that, where she to do so, then their secret would be out. That would, in turn, mean that John, Jack, DK and Laura would have some very difficult questions to answer. It would also mean that, should she be unable to find her way home, Aeryn and D'Argo would have to return to Earth in full view of the authorities, to face whatever fate those authorities might impose upon them.

'~'

John breathed a huge sigh of relief as he climbed into Jack's truck: It had been half an hour since Aeryn should have safely made high orbit and there had been no sign that she had been discovered. Now he was joining his father in leaving work early: They were heading out for somewhere in the everglades that they knew well, a nice, quiet place for the evening they had planned. According to the schedule, they had about an hour to go until the radiation waves from the largest solar flares would reach Earth. If Aeryn was right, and lucky, she would use that wave to create a wormhole to return to her to her home.

Jack parked the truck at the end of the lonely, everglades track, flicked off the headlights and soon joined John on the flatbed. Five minutes later, by the light of the lamps attached to the roll-bar, John had a telescope set up. Then he moved on to tuning in a customized radio transceiver to the unusual and unused frequency that they had agreed with Aeryn.

"Aeryn? Aeryn can you hear me?" John spoke into a small handset while seated in a lawn chair. Jack stood, playing with the telescope, having now turned off the large, fixed lamps so that he stood a better chance of spotting Aeryn's prowler, or more realistically, maybe just the wormhole. The radio crackled back. "She's not there, dad." John spoke sadly.

"C'mon, son, maybe we can spot her," Jack replied, motioning for John to join him at the telescope, the gesture barely visible in the dark. John dropped the handset and stood.

"John! Is that you? We're fine, in position," Aeryn's disembodied voice came over the radio almost as soon as he had finished speaking. "My sensors show the wave should reach us in about 60 mic… 90 seconds." Deke gurgled and whooped in excitement, the sound so loud it easily carried over the transmission. At least he seemed to be enjoying himself.

John threw himself back down into the lawn chair and ran his hand around on the flatbed until he found the recently discarded handset. He snatched it up towards his mouth, praying that she would still be there by the time he was able to reply.

"You know, you could stay?" John spoke, his voice close to breaking and well past pleading.

"No, John. I have to get back to my own home… My own John," came Aeryn's reply, softly insistent.

"John, Jack, There's a wormhole opening. Looks like this is it. Good luck…"

"You too," Jack called across from by the telescope.

"Fly safe, Aeryn," John whispered.

"I will. John, I…" Aeryn replied, but the rest was lost in static.

"I see a flare!"Jack called excitedly, his eye pressed to the telescope. The seconds ticked on, marked only by the crackling from the transceiver. "It's gone," Jack concluded more softly, what seemed like an age latter.

"Love you..." John breathed, deliberately too quietly for his father to hear.

Twenty minutes later, John and Jack still sat on the back of Jack's pick-up, staring up at the stars, finishing off their beers. The telescope set up on the tailgate was long abandoned. All sign of Aeryn and Deke's tiny prowler had long since vanished from sight, even with the telescope's aid. Their fancy radio transceiver still buzzed quietly, too, with only static coming across now. They had turned the volume down, but had left it on, just in case.

"They're gone, son," Jack intoned with a sigh as John drained the last of his beer. Jack threw a supportive arm around his son's shoulders. John had scarcely said a word in the last twenty minutes and Jack had grown a little concerned about how he was taking it.

"I guess so," John nodded, snuffling slightly, obviously struggling to throw off his fugue.

"She sure was something though…" Jack continued.

"Uh, hmmm. Sure was."

"D'Argo, too." Jack added. John nodded again. "Cute little kid." Suddenly John snapped out of his reverie, as though coming to a decision. "Smart, too."

"C'mon dad," John said, standing and stretching before hoping over the side. "I wanna get home, get an early night. Got a lot of work to be getting on with in the morning," he added, catching the keys as Jack tossed them to him with a grin.

John pulled the driver's door open and spared one last look up at the clear, starlight night sky before getting in. "Where ever you are, babe… somehow…" he promised quietly to himself with a private, determined smile before pulling the door shut behind him.

'~'

**The end. Perhaps.**


End file.
